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"The heart that has truly loved never forgets, 

But as truly loves on to the close, 
As the sunflower turns on her god when he sets, 

The same look which she did when^be-ro^e.'^—- 



-MboRHt t7 ■> c "\ 

■ ■■■-> r, ^-ii'.^ \ 



5 



Vo....fe.?..3.J'.. 'hv/ 
NO, ILLIN(>XS. ' -N y 



PLA 

Pkinted at the Herald Steam Book akd Job Office,' 
1881. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, m the year 1881, by 

J. FLETCHER HOLLISTER, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at 
Washington. 



f)i{f)idS¥ioK. 



This work is affectiouately dedicated: — 

let. To his Dear \Yife, Sharley Emeline, the faithful friend 
and sharer of both his sorrows and his joys. 

2d. To his friends — with the good regards that the gift implies. 

3d. To all those who desire to read it — with a wish for their 
pleasure, and perchance, profit. 

4th. To his enemies, if there are such. 

5th. And lastly, To those "Who for lack of sense, txirn critics 
in their own defense.'"— (Pope). As he always will, "His de- 
fects to know, make use of every friend and every foe.'' 

BY THE AUTHOE. 




Pl{5^ j^&d5{ 



"Paint me as I am.'''' — Cromwell. 
In publishing a book great or small, it is customary to insert 
a preface setting forth the scope and design of the work. This 
work assumes very little of scope, and less of design. As was 
said by a Prince of Poets, (Burns) : 

"Some rhyme a ueebor's name to lash; 
Some rhyme (vain tho't) for needfu'' cash; 
Some rhyme to catch the country clash, 
And raise a din; 
For me, an aim I never fash :. 

I rhyme for fun.'''' 
Therefore more need not be said thereon. 

The following pieces, whatever their mei'it — if any — were 
written as occasional and mere wayside trifles, as circumstance or 
incident gave occasion: yet upon reflection they, or some of them, 
seem to point a moral; some to express a sentiment; some to 
indulge a whimsey, and some even do "give aid and comfort" to 
honor and patriotism : ever keeping in view the true dignity and 
higher welfare of humanity. The work, miscellaneous as~it is, 
imparts the thought, sentiment and feeling of its author, express- 
ed in his own language ; and is published to please himself, and 
also his friends who have often importuned him with : "Why don't 
you get your poems published?'" 

THE AUTHOK. 



mfljeje 



Page 
M}' ChiklhoocVs Home — 1 

Fame ... .... 10 

True Happiness — — 11 

Envy .... .... 12 

Summer Shower .... 14 

Lines on Hearing a Watch, &c. 15 

Fleeting Summer — — 18 

Supplement to Fleeting Summer — 19 

Lines .... 20 

Liberty Song — — 22 

Life .... .... .... 23 

To the Tippler .... .... 25 

Temperance Jubilee — — 25 

My Wife .... .... 26 

Fashionables — 37 

Equality .... .... 28 

Ethics of Trade .... .... .... 29 

Soliloquy .... .... 30 

Obedience — 30 




X INDEX. 

The Forsakeu's Lament 

Faith, Hope, Love 

The Graves 

The Ox 

Happy Fire Side 

A Lament 

Spring Morning 

Freedom's Star 

A Chapter on Bickerings 

Varieties 

The Dandy 

The Kindly .... 

Dedication of Album 

Prairie (Jirl 

Folly and Fun 

Elegy on the Death of Charles Madison Carver 

Youth 

The Neglected Boy ... 

Country vs. City; Nature vs. Art 

To a Brother Ehymer,— O. Fuller 

Bloomers 

Our Tobacco Chewing Parson 

Biped Tobacco Worms 

Priestly Religion .... 

Who is the Murdered Wife 

The Old Wife And the New 

The Women 



INDEX. 



zi 



The Guardian (Beven) 

To Ella 

This Age — 

The Sleepy Baby 

The Supreme 

Be True to Thyself 

Come to the Concert 

Welcome to Our Returning Soldiers 

Epic of Madam Grundy 

Evening Hymn 

The Spirit of Man Never Grows Old 

Our Christmas Dinner 

A Thought 

Guardians 

Couplet 

My Mountain Home 

A Riddle 

Chewing Gum 

Money .... 

Rich 

Dying Body's Adieu to Its Departing Spirit 



70 

72 

73 

75 

76 

78 

79 

82 

84 

104 

106 

108 

112 

112 

114 

115 

116 

117 

119 

123 

ViA 




MY CHILDHOOD'S HOME. 



Sweet Home of my Childhood — dear land of my birth! 

Thy beauties in dream I survey, 
And revel in pictures that glow round that hearth 

Where rocked in the cradle I lay; 
No spot so enchanting upon the green earth, 

So richly in memory hung, 
As that where my tongue in its juvenile mirth, 

Its first prattling melodies sung 

There stood my native wood-built cot,* 
And suited to the charming spot, 

Remate from city strife; 
Without, were thrift and order spread, 
AVithin, domestic comforts shed 

Their rustic beams o'er life. 

In front and just across the way, 

A time browned "Stiir'f did antic play 

Its pranks with old and young: 
Three drams or more a day, at least, 
Were modish then; thus even the Priest 

Inspired his godly tongue. 

* See Note 1. f See Note 2. 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



It stood unblushing on a brink;* 

Fit place, as mortals crazed with drink 

Soon found the ditch below. 
I saw not then the ruin dire, 
The crispings of its liquid fire, 

Its sure entail of woe ! 

My father's patient toil and skill 
Built the old fashioned cider-mill f 

With circled trough and wheel; 
The massive wheel its circuits rolled 
In ponderous rounds, till Winter's cold 

The laggard "cheese" congeal. 

Came there the plodding farmers round, 
"In turn" to occupy the ground, — 

For so the order stood — 
With clumsy carts, some iron stayed. 
And some more clumsy still, were made 

Exclusively of wood. 

These laden deep and oxen drawn, 

To evening's shade from morning's dawn, 

Each creaking 'neath its load 
Of apples, straw, and barrels void, 
In prior years filled and enjoyed, 

Came trundling 'long the road. 

The apples in the "bed" were stored. 
And piecemeal in the wheeltrack poured; 

"Old Dobbin" cherup told. 
Tugged, with his antique "tackling" prest, 
Against the belt across his breast. 

And round the engine rolled. 

* Of a spring-run near the house. f See Note 3. 



MY CHILDHOOD'S HOME. 



Freebooter like, I ran the ground, 

And culled and munched the best I found 

Ur plied the magic "straw * 
Tobarrel tub, and riJl, and press: 
And sipped and swigged till sore distress 

Would seize mj burdened maw. 

^Twas tinder to my childish pride. 
When seniors lifted me to ride 

Astride the sweeping shaft; • 
Ihe scene mj infant bosom fired 
^ot more of glory I desired, 

And deep the goblet quaffed. 

(.in Autocrat might seize the helm 
^t fetate, the Universe his realm 
A ;r^^ ^"" itself his throne: ' 
And Empires tremble at his nod 
Uwn him a Caesar or a god, 
'Twas nothing to my own! 

Yes; I was greater, happier far, 
Ihan Sultan, President, or Czar- 

I lived! and life was bliss ' 
My guileless soul, worth millions more 
Ihan power, or fame, or golden store 

Had never gone amiss.) 

But ah! r sometimes lost mv poise, 
And from that pinnacle of joys 

Fell tumbling headlong down, 
Like sundry children older grown 
[Some call them^/.^,j fl,i„g .^eir throne, 

I heir kingdom, and their crown. 

* See Note 4. 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



This closed the scf>ne— a tragic close I — 
With bruises and a bleeding nose, 

Wrought by the sad mishap; 
Crest fallen "Johnny" subbing went 
To give his bursting bosom vent 

In "mother's" soothing lap. 

Dear mother! blessings be thy share, 
For watching, toiling, ceaseless care! 

And happy rest thy soul ! 
Thy chidings are as vivid now, 
Though time has chiseled deep my brow, 

As when I truant stoh^ 

To paddle in the gutter stream — 
Ah I life was then a flowery dream, 

Turmoil and grief unknown. 
I knew not then misfortune's smart, 
Which since has blighted head and heart. 

And left them sere and lone. 

The ''gutter" was my darling rill. 
Sprung from adjacent granite hill 

In leaping, laughing chase. 
How oft its current clear I riled 
With fickle sands and pebbles piled, 

To head its wonted chase 1 

Lone chestnuts, shagbarks, oaks and elms, 
Grand Sachems of their forest realms. 

Spared by the axman's arm. 
For fruit, or ornament, or shade, 
As fancy or the senses swayed, 

Stood waving o'er the farm. 



MY CHILDHOOD'S HOME. 



Soft maples, natives of the swales, 
As if to woo the kissing gales, 

Upturn their silvery leaves; 
Among their mossy branches gray, 
The chittering squirrels antics play, 

The robin her palace weaves. 

That one across the way, in Spring 
Crowned with its scarlet blossoming, 

Gay orchestra for birds, 
Pavilion charmingly attuned, 
Where he-jrt with kindred heart communed 

In love's untutored words. 

Not barren trees that idly stood, 
Stern relics of primeval wood, 

Dotting the manor o'er; 
But fruits of every taste and hue. 
Which on the trees and brambles grew, 

The queen attraction bore. 

There grew the apple and the pear. 
The currant, cherry, plum, were there. 

For more would relish call ? 
There, native grapes in blue and white. 
Some climbing to the elm tree's height, 

Some creeping on the wall. 

Would more? — there hung the luscious peach. 
Inviting in the finger's reach, 

To crown the tempting list. 
What epicure would ever seek 
More than devour its blushing cheek, 

By Beauty's goddess kissed? 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



Those fruits, my father planted them, 
And careful nursed each frajrile stem 

That bent beneath the storms. 
He sowed the grass-plot by the door, 
And set the picket fence before, 

To ward intrudiriLr forms. 



»>;K 



With pbiythiuL's gathered on the ^'stah', 
I whittled sticks and fingers there, 

In tune with mother's wheel jt 
Or marked the glowing stithy fire, 
Where \'ulcan like, my artful sire 

New formed the candent steel. 

Alert, when sisters milking went;J 

Or o'er their scythes when brothers bent, 

Or showed the smothering m<>w, 
I capered, tumbled, shouted meet, 
Went berryin<r. or cooled my feet 

In furrows 'hind tlic plow. 

Thus passes childhood's giddy hour, 
Woven of shadow, sheen and shower: 

Tiike puss or poodle pet; 
A cumbrance if sweet love has not 
Its biding place in Home's dear spot, 

And Hope's bright Altar set. 

Now cauie the motley district schools. 
Resort for congreuatinir fools. 

Close by the' -Old Red Church," 
Where Pedagogues for want of sense, 
Assumed dictation to dispense 

Their ignorance and birch. || 

* See Note 5. t See Note G. J See Note 7. | See Note 



3fY CE/LDIIOOD'S HOME. 



There every stage of youthful age 
Glummed o'er some musty, tattered page, 

As tardy sessions passed, 
Or restless urchins sly at play, 
The irksome hours whiled away, 

And glad to see the last, 

When surging forces chained and pent. 
And passions may their tumult vent 

In rowdy, rampant spree — 
"Dismissed!" — And how in clamor — scream 
Their roistering life's upheaving steam 

Exploded instantly! 

In Summer, to the romping shade; 
In Winter to the icy glade, 

They helter skelter sped; 
To scuffle off activity. 
Or coast some hold declivity, 

By dashing If'ctnr led. 

Adown he drives — ashies and shakes — 
Locks whizzing in the gale he makes — 

Hat frighted flics his crown — 
His (juivering sled half leaping flies, 
Yet friendly star the rudder plies 

And lights him safely down. 

Others rush down the treacherous track — 
Heels over head — on face or hack, 

Jeered hy the shouting crowd — 
To smash their noddles in tlie crust, 
Or smother in the whirling dust. 

The drift their shivering shroud. 




THE SUNFLOWER. 



More wary, others bring their sleds 
To gentler slopes as caution bids, 

And fortune on their side ; 
While wee ones shun the steeper glare 
And seek the safer levels, where 

Their feet may gaily slide. 

Those mossy walls* — outrcaching piles 
Of granite winrows running miles, 

Cutting the lands with gray; 
Enduring hints of fore-sires' toils, 
Defying time's and season's spoils — 

Bound garden, field and way. 

That blest --Old Garden"f — hallowed soil! 
Where grandsire in his youth did toil 

And won an honest crust; 
Upon those relics close beside 
Stood shelter where he lived and died 

Full ripe in years and trust. 

Those mossy bounds of rustic yore; 
That ruined telL\ were old before 

I drew my natal breath. 
And head and hand that built them there 
By lifelong labor, skill and care, 

Lay still and cold in death. 

The "hackmatack"|| he planted near, 
Memento of affection dear, 

And relic of his pains. 
Still waves its mystic triumph there, 
Uplooking to that country where 

Perennial Summer reigns. 

* See Note 9. t See Note 10. J See Note 11. 1| See No<e 12. 



MY CElLDnoOD'S HOME. 



T love the spot where first my life 
Was ushered on this scene of strife, 

To swell the active throno;; 
I love thy fields of flocks and herds, 
I love thy sky where songster birds 

Their worship pour in song. 

I love thy trees and rocks and rills; 
Thy blnoming vales and rugged hills 

In graceful C(.ntnist stand: 
I love thy lofty uiountain steeps. 
Where nature in fantastic heaps, 

Pi.'ed up her pristine sand. 

I love thy springs which gush and gleam 
Their laughing tribute to the stream 

That ripples through the dell; 
Eager my thirsty lips partook 
From them, or from the purling brook, 

Or from the indoor well. 

I love the cot where comfort dwelt. 
There parents dear devoted knelt 

CtMnniuning with their God; 
There honored they the King of Kings, 
And 'iieath the shadow of Ifis winas. 

The paths of meekness tn)d. 

With kindly parent care caressed. 
And just h;ilf dozi n Summers blest, 

I lefr that native soil.* 
Bound west, the youngest of the elan 
That watched my footsteps up to man, 

And taught me how to toil. 

* See Note 1-3. 



10 TTTE SUNFL WER. 



But ah I how chanixed life's drama now! 
Time's plowed his furrows 'cross my brow, 

Decay pervades my frame ; 
]VIy sun of youth approaches night, 
And life's unsettled, lambent light, 

l^urns with a f<}eble Haoie. 

Though exilcil on this western plain,* 
Fond recollection wakes the strain, 

Enchantment of the past: 
0, halcyon hour of childhood's glee I 
Fond memory will hallow thee 

So long as memory last. 

Little Rock, Kendall Couuty, IIIh., 1844. 



FAME. 



What is Fame? A bubble bright, 
Fancy lit in others' breath, — 

Flinging jack-o hintern light, 
Lures ambition on to death 

Why will silly mortals toil 

Half distracted thus for show? 

Can Fame proffer for their moil 
Haifa recompense below! — 

* See Note U. 




TRUE HAPPINESS. 



11 



Empty titles! — crowns of state! — 
Bundles of consuming care — 

Where's your final vaunt, ye great? 
Taunting echo answers, ''Where!" 



TRUE HAPPINESS. 



A question l(»ng in hot dispute — 

Enigma none could guess — 
"Where is itT' — ;is in k^eii pursuit 

Was sought 'i'lM E IIaimmnkss. 

I asked the iiiniiMrch on his throne, 

If royalty was l)li>sy 
'"Nay. nay," said he in anxious tone, 

"Here's no True Happiness !" 

I asked the warrior in the ticld. 

In gory glory's dress: 
What does your pomp and carnage yield? 

"Ah — no True Happiness?" 

I sought the miser in his cell. 

Recounting his increase; 
His woful l-.ok the tale did tell, 

He'd no True Happiness. 

I asked the thoughtless, vain and gay — 

Their idle answer this: 
"We eat and drink and rise to play." 

This your True Happiness! 



12 



THE SUNTLOWER. 



I sought the peasant in his cot — 
Sure there no grief cou'd press: 

"I've peace and plenty, but have not 
Yet found True Happiness!" 

I asked the saiot who long had trod 

In Bible holiness? 
"Not now, not here — in heaven and God 

I hope True Happiness." 

I turned to him who tills the ground 
Of Wisdom, Truth and Love? 

"These virtues my delightful bound, 
And cons-cience to approve, 

My cup," said he, "a brimming joy 

Of purity and peace; 
They all my time and thought employ, 

And win True Happiness. 

These Triune Glraces, — hail their sway ! — 

Undying Savior given 
To light and smooth life's checkered way, 

And earth transform to heaven!" 



ENVY. 



Oh! horrid Envy! — execrable thing! — 
A hell-born child, offspring legitimate ! 
Wrinkled and haggard and grown gray with near 
Six thousand years of unrelenting greed ! 



ENVY. 13 



Tireless and sateless thus she marches on, 
Flinging her blight o'er all the social plan, 
'Whelming the loveliest tokens of our race 

In common ruin I 
Env3^ ! — that hateful name, exceeding vile! 
The chief of all the diabolic train 
Of hellish fiends within the range of thought; 
That harrows nature's indignations up 

To tempest wild ! 
Ah — who can look fell Envy in the face, 
Or taste the venom of her aspen tongue, 

And not the loser be ! — 
For when she takes possession of a heart, 
She quick pursues the victim of her ire, 
With unrelenting zeal and hate and wrath 

And rage unmitigated! 
She stalks abroad a most flagitious hag; 
Whose eyes of vengeance dire and whose knit brow 
Bespeak malignity that reigns within; 
Whose venomed tongue a fatal dagger is; 
Whose shriveled lips but hide a catacomb 
Where lie ingulphed her wretched victims low; 
Whose nostrils fume with vapors from the pit 
Whence she proceeded, and whence all our woes 

First emanated ! 
Her breath is foul, her very atmosphere 
Is foul — polluted with the Stygian stench! 
She never smiles but seeing others' woes; 
When others smile her very eyes weep blood! 



1 4 THE S UNFL WEE. 



SUMMER SHOWER. 



Hark I — the tumult, splash and spatter 

On the panes; 
Sprinkling, dashing — what's the matter ! 

What? — it rains! 
There some drops are quiet sleeping; 
There some others stealthy creeping; 
There — see others antic leaping — 

Yes, it rains. 

Not an urchin out at playing 

Can be seen; 
Lambs and cattle heedless straying 

O'er the green. 
Now are scudding helter-skelter, 
From the storm's terrific pelter, 
To the shed or thicket (shelter. 

Or ravine. 

Nor is seen a song bird flying 

From her nest, 
Though in garb of nature's buying 

Is she drest; 
Nor is heard a vocal strain 
From creation's plural train ; 
Music of the hill and plain 

Hushed to rest. 

Lightnings glare, and booming thunder 

Shake the hill; 
Thirsty leaf and chalice under, 

Drink their fill; 



In the driving tempest roaring 
Now are heaven's torrents pouring, 
Now in gentle mizzle lowering 
Soft and still. 

Ardent nature now is quenching 

All her thirst, — 
Warj plowmen dreading drenching, 

Scampered erst, — 
Grateful earth the bounty blessing, 
Teeming fields the boon confessing, 
In their hues of I^den dressing 

Fresh as first. 

For this hour storm curtains dense 

Veiled the blue, 
Lo, what richer recompense 

Greets the view! 
Sol returns and beaming brighter, — 
Larks and robins winging lijihter, — 
Lilies washed and all the whiter, 

x\ll seem new. 



LINES 

On hearing a watch ticking in a lady's bosom. 



Ah, little prattler, 
Fashioned by art, 

Ungallant tattler, 
Spy of the heart! 



16 THE SUNFLOWER. 



What are the messages, 
Breathed in thy ears — 

Hopings or presages, 
Trustings or fears? 

Say, wast thou bidden there 

Welcome, a guest? 
Or cosy hidden there, 

Cuddled to rest? 
Tell as you reckon on. 

Does love beguile? — 
Has she a Corydon 

Courting her smiles? 

Comes there no sadness near 

Where you recline? 
Ever does gladness cheer? 

Can she not pine? 
D.ies ne'er that bosnm heave 

Grief's silent throes? — 
Doe? that heart never grieve 

O'er secret woes? 

Is virtue reigning there? 

Di)es truth adorn ? 
No folly staining there? 

Ts there no thorn? 
Are her days sunny all — 

Is there no gloom ? — 
Sips she no bitter gall 

At dear one's tomb? 

"Ah ! captious visitor, 
Silence your theme! 



A WATCH TICKING. 17 



Play not inquisitor 

Into her dream. 
Foibles of womankind 

Lenient scan; 
Fau.ts of the humankind 

Tarnish thee, man! 

"I've not intruded here, 

True is my tonpue, 
Nor been deluded here, 

Thoughtless as young j 
Emily lovingly 

Gave me the place, 
Never reprovingly 

Shuts her embrace. 

"Virtue and purity 

Blush not for me. 
Theirs the security 

Wanton ones flee; 
Thus in simplicity, 

Stranger to strife 
Rich in felicity 

Passes my life. 

"Such of my history 

Freely I tell; 
Hers in its mystery 

Better to dwell; 
Ne'er shall my vanity 

Cause her to weep, 
Friends of humanity 

Counsels will keep. 



Hers is variety, 
This I disclose, 



18 



THE SUNFLOWER, 



Pleased to satiety, . 

Sorrowed with woes, — 
Sore melancholy 

Grieving in tears, 
Gay fun and folly 

Laughing in tears." 



FLEETING SUMMER. 




Summer's realm is passing away, 

Dims her eye a lingering tearj 
Hues that shone but yesterday gay. 

Now are sallow, and brown, and sere. 
Dashing round his ^saddening shade, 

Autumn now the scepter assumes; 
Urging on his plundering trade 

Spoiling Earih of Eden's perfumes. 

Flora fresh with amorous balm,' 

To his feet her offering brings. 
Yielding up her flowery prilm, 

AVhile the '^Kafe'''^'' her requiem sings. 
Corn that reared its tasseled head, 

Vines that crept in lowly array, 
Peas that twined and blossomed are dead, 

So the Summer is passing away. 

Hoar-frost sports his ruinous sheen. 

Bleak winds growl their threatening wail, 

Cowering landscapes barter their green, 
Don in turn their sorrowing veil. 

* Katy-did. 



FLEETING SUMMER. 19 



From the trees their livery drops, 
Rudely to their mouldering cast; 

Lone and long their quiverins: tops 
Wave beneath the wintry blast. 

Birds hie off, deserting our clime, 

Clime where Winter is king so long, 
Where May notes perennial chime, 

Chime in love's t-ymphonii>us song. 
Thus creation's varying throng, 

Scenes and seasons iiloomv and bright. 
Doomed, are trailing tatters along, 

Marching on to interminate night. 

Thus Old Time is rushing his team; 

So our life-hour hurries away, 
Gone our years like story or dream, 

Dream of a moment, glimpse of a day. 
But adieu to them and their pain; 

When our winter of lite appears, 
If we but an Eden regain. 

Clime unmeasured by change of years. 



SUPPLEMENT. 



Again returns the story 
Of Summer's fading glory. 
In purple, brown, and hoary. 

And chilly storm and gust: 
The Old Lady hushes gladness, 
(Yet to repine is madness,) 
And dons her weeds of sadness, 

New-dyed in Autumn rust. 



20 THE SUNFLOWER. 



Spring that was so inviting, 
And Summer so delighting, 
Autumn is now affrighting 

With ruin chill and drear. 
The vine has lost its cluster, 
The corn its green and luster — 
Ah, Nature ! who can trust her 

Deceitful smile or tear! 

But time its steps are hasting; 

As vegetations, wasting 

By Autumn's prowess, tasting 

Complete return to earth, 
So, soon will artful Nature 
Renew each cunning feature. 
Replace each dying creature 

With April's charming birth. 



LINES. 



Let crowned and mitred heads abide, 
Beneath their figment, Royalty, 

From all their pageantry and pride 
Deliver me! 

Let dukes and highborn fools invite 
To costly banquets proudly given, 

Whose luxuries without requite 
From serfs are riven. 

Let idle nabobs loll at ease, 

And win the vulgar gaping gaze, 



LINES. 



21 



Can mind regale upon a breeze 
Of heartless praise ! 

The sordid miser anxious keeps 
Keen vigil o'er his wasting trust; 

Let him, — his god is in his heaps 
Of cankering dust! 

I deprecate his sordid pains; — 
I spurn their titled dignities. — 

I love where equal justice reigns, 
And Freedom is. 

I love the man who tills the soil, 
With no temptations far to roam, 

Providing with his cheerful toil 
For his "sweet home." 

Around his ingle free of strife, 
His life a peaceful river runs; 

Where happy are his bonny wife 
And little ones. 

He scorns ambition's fickle nod, 

And bids each showy fantom "hence!" 

His guide is Nature, Nature's God 
And common sense. 

Thus his felicities increase, 

Though years increasing dim his eyes, 
Preparing for a home of peace 

In purer skies. 



1845. 



22 THE SUNFL WER. 



LIBERTY SONG. 

Tune. — Burlington. 

Awake all ye Freemeri and hear the glad story, 
And swell with emotion each patriot breast! 

The vile blot that darkened the disk of our glory, 
Is biding the Voter's behest. 

Their heralds are crying on wings of the morning, 
Nor shall their entreaties be uttered in vain, 

For thousands on thous;inds are heeding the warning, 
And plead for the suffering train. 

Speed on, ye bright heralds of Emancipation ! 

And spread the glad tidings of Freedom's bright day: 
That from this exalted,' this sturdy young nation, 

Oppression is fleeing away. 

Ye slaves of the South, turn your anguish to laughter, 
And dry up the fountains that furnish your tears, 

For Freedom's sweet song shall employ you hereafter, 
And none shall torment you with fears. 

The lash of the master shall echo no longer. 
The wail of the slave-mother ever shall cease; 

Men's hearts and the Nation's grow stronger and 
stronger. 
As the slave walks to freedom and peace. 

Will minstrels sit longer in sorrow ! — No — never ! 

The dirge has already eu>ployed them too long, 
They'll render thanksgiving nnd praises forever 

In chanting the '-Liberty Song." 



LIFE. 



Unite then, each Freeman, in raptures of pleasure, 
The chorus of Freedom falls sweet on the ear,— ' 

Unite in thanksgiving to God for the treasure 
Of freedom to Freemen so dear. 



LIFE. 



Lo ! the busy breathing throng. 

Sporting in the beams of day ! 
Pleasure's sunshine a'l day lon<^ 

Steals their cares and pains away. 
Loves of action and of ease 

In all right relations tend; 
Labor, pastime equal please, 

Equal serve the pleasing end. 

God did plant it — and it grew — 

Something high o'er base control 
Filling every avenue 

Of the body, spirit, soul : 
This is LTFK ! a magic dower — 

Life di if used throughout, above; 
Bird that in each bosom's bower 

Sings its rhapsodies of love. 

So, as myriad sentient things 
Mingle in the merry strife, 

Happiness spontaneous sprino-s 
From each element of life : 

Sense and sight awak*^ the strain, 
Passion warms the throbbing breast, 



1844. 



34 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



Thouj^lit directs the teeming train, 
Ruled by reason's high behest. 

That is Life where every power 

Its organic plan fulfills ; 
In the sweet and tinted flower, 

Cup where nectar dew distils; 
In the daisy on the mountain; 

In the verdure on the trees; 
In the pearly gushing fountain ; 

In the fragrance of the breeze; 

In the acorn that's buried 

Beneath the wood s »il ; 
In the seeds that are planted 

By husbandman's toil; 
In the herbage that carpets 

The prairie and lawn, 
Where sport in wihi freedom 

The rabbit and fawn; 

In the bear in the forest; — 

The wolf in the ledge ; 
In the lamb on the meadow, — 

The mouse in the hedge; 
In the frog in the puddle — 

The rail in the brake; 
The trout by the ripple. 

The duck on the lake; 

In the dove's mellow cooing, 

The lark's merry theme, 
In the robin's sweet wooing, 

In the eagle's wild scream, 
Through earth, air and ocean of permeant life. 

All Nature with pleasure of being is rife. 



TEMPERANCE J UBILEE. 25 



TO THE TIPPLER. 



Though the goblet so witchingly lure, 

Spurn it, for infamy lurks in the bowl? 
There a Syren while proffering: cure, 

Plunges her dart in the stultified soul. 
Filled is her bt^aker with complicate sorrow 

Though flaunting around with enticing display 
Her sweets of to-day become woes of to-morrow, 

Her venom like viper's so poisons your clay. 



TEMPERA.NCE JUBILEE. 



Lo, the Temperance Jublilee comes ! 

Bright is the banner she over us flings: 
Slaves of Bacchus in desolate homes, 

Freely may share in the pleasure she brings. 
See — huw she's laden ! her basket is teeming 

With comfort and health to the needy and wan, 
Sweetly her eyes w.th divinity beanjing, 

And darkness and sorrow before her are gone. 
Hail Thou, Teu)perance, goddess of peace, 

Hallowed genius that scatters our fears! — 
Brings the desolate kindly release. 

Chasing their sorrows and wiping their tears! 
Hail to thy conquests with loud acclamation. 

That vanquishes Bacchus and frees the forlorn. 
The cause that of thousands has been the salvation, 

The solace of millions, let triumph adorn! 



26 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



MY WIFE. 



My Wife, dear partner of my youth, 

Couipanion of my a<re, 
True t^pe of virtue, love and truth, 

INly comforter and sa^e: 
Her smile like sunbeam to unfold 

]My bloom of head and heart, 
Shall valued be of price untold, 

Till life in death depart. 

I love her ibr her loveliness 

Of feature, spirit, mind. 
Full elemen's, without excess, 

Of essence most refined. 
Her jjentle hands, thou<!;h never made 

To «:uide the sturdy pl'>w, 
Are oft in sweet affection laid 

To i-ooth my aoxious brow. 

Let. others the wild mazes roam 

To sate their lawless love, 
But let me aye abide at h-nie 

With my own charminir dove. 
Would I exchange her pure embrace 

For all the wanton train? — 
O'erpall with grief that angel face, 

And pierce that heart with pain ! 

I ask no monarch's crown to lay 

Its weight upon my head: 
Let me the unambitious way 

Of upright manhood tread. 



THE FASHIONABLES. 



27 



While Heaven warrants to extend 

Mj residue of life, 
Grant uie this true and bosom friend, 

My dear confiding wife. 



1848. 



THE FASHIONABLES. 




How Fashion, vain, capricious jade, 

Gee-haws lier silly victims round! 
In Folly's flaunting garb arrayed, 

They list her every plausive sound.— 
Content to pi .y doll-baby part, 

These semblances of human kind. 
Deform their bodies by their art, 

And starve th' invaluable mind. 

Better design of dough or dirt, 

An iniage of the human form, 
And dress it as they would a flirt, — 

No matter whether cool or warm — 
Deck ir, with tawdry, gems and curls, 

Au^ pdiitt the blushes on its face, — 
(Fair sample of our modish girls, 

Fantoms for simpletons to chase !) 

But let the human form divine 

Retain its native beauty still; 
Thwart not its Maker's wise design. 

Mar not its Maker's wondrous skill! 
l^\iht form if prized like other things. 

And valued for the icorth it shrines, 
'Tis casket keepins; richer gem " 

Than ever lit Golconda's mines. 



28 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



EQUALITY. 



God never made an Autocrat, 
In all His broad creation, — 

A monster bandit whose fiat 
Should rule a man or nation. 

God never made a chattel slave; 

Such pitiless infliction 
Would mar the plan His wisdom gave, 

With glaring contradiction. 

But made mankind for liberty, 
And bade them live as brothers; 

Gave each liU own in equity, 
One reckoned with anothers. 

In this let each their homage pay 
To Hiui their own Creator, 

And thus of J.ove and Truth each day 
Be rich participator. 

Let none despise a wholesome toil : 
It makes the pwr man wealthy; 

To dig subsistence from the soil 
Makes leeble mortals healthy. 

Whatever I myself can do 

I will not ask of others; 
To "live and let live," heJp Hoe! too, 

Becomes all human brothers. 

When pitted in the cause of riirht. 
And none to staod beside me. 



ETHICS OF TRADE. 



29 



I will contend with main and might, 

Though justice be denied me. 1845. 



ETHICS OF TRADE. 



A fig for him whose silly heart 

Confides in wily proflerings, — 
A victim sheer of sharpers' smart, 

Their wiles and crafty offerings; 
For honesty in intercourse 

Was long ago forgotten ; 
The moral sense has lost its force, 

The social heart is rotten. 

Sa(hUrb(fi/s, now "warrants health,'' 

To get his bread well buttered; 
Brief, his pockets stuffs with wealth, 

For honied phrases uttered; 
Shem-s, declares the neatest fits; 

Yorihtick, pledges cheapest; 
Jwji^hr^ prospers by his wits. 

Skilled in tricks the deepest. 

Thus chicanery and fraud, 

Lying, cheating, scheming, 
Spread their network all abroad, 

To snare the unschooled or dreaming; 
To lure the simple in their toils, 

And filch their health and earnings; 
And make of innocence their spoils. 

Reckless of dear heart-yearnings. 



1845. 



30 THE SUNFLOWER. 



SOLILOQUY. 



Just give me skill my ends to plan, 

And nerve and muscle equal, 
I'll be an independent man, 

Uncaring fur the sequel; 
I would not ask of huuian kind 

A favor or a blessing. 
But gain fur body and for mind 

All that is worth pussessmg. 

And when I sail Avernus o'er 

I'll take my own conveyance, — 
I'll seize Old Charon's helm and oar, 

My motto, '-No delayance!" 
Let dash Avernus' breakers high, 

And tempests shake my coffin. 
And wild tornadoes wreck the sky — 

Fit scene my clay to duff in ! 1345 



OBEDIENCE. 



Nature of blessings vouches bounteous share, — 

Nature begotten of some Great First Cause;— 
The ''Curse of Providence" is but to bear 

The fatal sequence of infracted laws. 
Sorrow and pain are fruits from off that tree 

Which ne'er was planted by obeying hands,— 
Grown by permission, urging leave to be. 

Apostate harvest of perverted lands. 



THE FORSAKEN'S LA.MENT, 

A DREAM. 



A musino; through a shady grove, 

By purling stream, 
I laid me 'neath a shady bower, 

To sleep — to dream. 
Sweet blossoms drowsy shed perfumes 

O'er heart and head, 
And softly through the quivering leaves. 

The sunbeams played. 
The merry birds that thronged the air 

Around, above, 
Their chimes so sweetly struck my ear, 

1 dreamed of love: 
Anon I heard a plaintive moan 

Of person nigh, 
I looked, and lo! a damsel fair 

Appeared close by. 
Around her chastened charming face 

Played auburn tresses, 
While light and blush and mystic grace, 

That aye impresses, 
Beamed out o'er cheek and eye and lip, 

So redolent; 
^Twas truth and love and innocence 

In beauty blent. 

With a form that a fairy would prize,' 
And accents out-vying the birds. 

And dashing the tears Irom her eyes, 
She uttered her anguish in words. 



33 THE SUNFL WEB. 



And who could forget those sweet tones, 
So chastened in sadness and wrong, 

When, weary of weeping and moans, 
She uttered her sorrow in song;: 



'& 



"Ye birds that flit from spray to spray, 
And gaily chant your twittering theme; 

Ye squirrels chattering in the trees, 
Ye minnows sporting in the stream; 

"Ye grouse that hie on fleetest wing. 
And ducks that plod along the fen; 

Ye herons poised in ether high, 

Far o'er the ^launts of faithless men; 

"Ye Iambs that frolic on the green; 

Ye conies skulking on the lea; 
Ye dappled, timid, forest fawns, 

Cast one kind look on hapless me? 

"Ye sullen clouds that heedles-s fly. 

Regard me as ye pass along! 
Ye whirling winds that rend the sky, 

Be still and hear my tale of wrong ! 

"Through childhood I sported 

In freedom like you; 
Regaled on life's nectars. 

And laved in its dew. 
Till sought by the charmer 

Who won my esteem, 
Then quickly evanished 

The sweet of my dream. 

"I lived in the cottage 
By yonder wood-side; 



THE FORSAKEN'S LAMENT. 



33 



Fond sire and mother 
All wishes supplied: 

No brother or sister 
A truant would roam, 

For love and contentment 
Pervaded that home. 

"Anon, o'er the prairie 

A neighboring swain, 
To taste of that Eden 

Came again and again ; 
With ejes softly beaming 

And tenderest tone, 
He wooed me and promised 

To make me his own. 

"In tones of such sweetness 

He called me his love. 
How could I refuse him 

To mate with the dove? — 
Alas! the sad lesson 

I learn it too late, 
For the dove that I cherished 

Has flown from its mate. 

"I loved him sincerely, 

I thought he loved me; 
I prized him most dearly, 

And thought he prized me. 
With gushing aifection 

My holy love burned, 
And in his caresses 

I thought it returned. 

"I'd nothing to give him 
Of trappings or pelf. 



34 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



But the treasure far richer 

My innocent seU'; 
As pure as the dew drop 

This bosom of mine, 
What mure could he covet 

His heart to insshrine? 

"How could he thus leave me 

In anguish to pine — 
How could he so trifle 

With such love as mine! • 
Why am I forsaken? 

0, what have I done 
That I am deserted 

By that faithless one? 

"Let prairies don perpetual gloom, 

And fields their golden harvests fleej 
Let Sprmg depart no more to bloom. 

Since my false swain's deserted me. 
And let me fly beyond these scenes 

To climes where suffering spirits rest, 
To realms where unrequited love 

Shall never more disturb the breast." 



FAITH— HOPE— LOVE. 



But for the Faith that points a better goal, 
And Hope that promises fruition there, 

And Love that sweetens earth's embittered bowl 
With nectar grateful to the longing soul, 

Man better were the senseless clam or bear. 



THE GRAVES. 35 



THE GRA.VES. 



The spade gives the dead both a bed and a cover 
And levels distinctions in plebeian earth, 

There round the dark cavern do weeping friends hover, 
And hush in deep silence all accents of mirth. 

In the grave there the brave and the timid lie sleeping, 
The high and the low in the same kindred dust, .-: 

While reptiles so loathsome are carnivals keeping 
O'er all that remains of ambition or lust. 

In the gloom of the tomb lies the wretch from his hovel, 
At his side from his pride lies the king from his 
throne, 

The wretch none abashed by position so novel, 
The king well content that his size is his own. 

Will the grave of the slave be a whit the less quiet. 
Because his late owner lies close at his side? 

His carcass no better delectable diet 

For worms: but what of his splendor and pride? 

There's a grave 'neath the wave where the millions lie 
hidden. 
Who roamed o'er the oceans their fortunes to tell, 
By war and tornado and pestilence bidden. 

And are rocked in their slumbers by proud ocean's 
swell. 



36 THE SUNFLOWER. 



THE OX. 



The ox, the patient ox, is doomed to toil. 

To wear through heat and cold and drouth and rain, 

The heavy yoke, to draw the rooting; plow. 

And lead the neap that weighs the teeming loads 

Of fresh produce from hill and dale and mead, 

Home to the thrifty farmers barn and crib, 

A rich reward of toiling man and beast. 

How fares he then? 
The blasts of Winter chill, and burning Sol 
Darts on him scorching beams, vile tongues blaspheme, 
And cruel hands deal blows unmerciful: 

He bears them all 
For scanty pittance of Ids dally food. 



HAPPY FIRE SIDE. 



Round the pleasant "Ingle" side 
AH endearments center, 

Realm that nothing may divide, 

Nothing rude m ly enter: 
Likeness of tlie home above. 

Every heart will shrine it, 
Truth and purity and love 

Clustering will twine it. 



O'er each feature, sense and form, 

Life its 'chantments throwing, 
Love through every bosom warm 

in sweet currents glowing. 
No unkindly passions spring 

Scenes like these to sadden; 
Words will only pleasure bring, 

Smiles will cheer and gladden. 



A LAMENT. 



The polar winds of bleak November blew. 

Dismantled trees their naked summits shook, 
O'er fields the snow in whirling eddies flew, 

And icy floors bridged the running brook; 
I moaning lay upon my couch of pain, 

Despondent, musing on the wasted past, 
Keen fancy's specters flitting through the brain; 

Their gloomy shadows o'er my spirit cast. 

The golden moments of impressive youth 

In folly wasted, — the illuring cheat 
Had gu'phed the soul, — Religion, Reason, Truth, 

All strewn in ruin at her dazzli' g feet. 
(Thus sport the young in dissipation's way, 

In wild tornadoes of their you*^hful fire; 
Thus pleasure frenzied, passion bears the sway. 

And each indulgence heaves the tempest higher.) 

Dejected wretch ! nor hope the spirit finds — 
Death-robbed forever of those hopeful ones 



38 THE S UNFL WER. 



Whose stately forms and whose unfolding minds 
Could cheer the parents' lonely setting suns. 

The future — what? — 'tis but unsightly dream, 
A vague conjecture of an unknown wild! — 

Ye Powers above, vouchsafe one glinting beam 
To light the evening of thy luckless child? 

Oh horrid thought! and who could but repine, 

Thus cruel flung on Fate's remorseless wave — 
\ictim devote of premature decline, 

And soon to die and strangers turf his grave? 
Forbid it, Heaven ! — but hopeless the refrain. 

Since life is ebbing to its last degree; 
Disease is wasting, soon its grief and pain 

Will close the mission of the dire decree. 

And neighbors kind with melancholy pace, 

And drooping head, will near the gloomy spot, 
Consign me to the quiet resting place, 

To sleep unwaking and my memory rot. 
Depart my kin I let Gorgons dress my tomb, 

And on its face "Annihilation" write; 
Let thought be hushed in everlastinir gloom. 

As lite is smothered in eternal night. 



SPRING MORNING. 



Day is springing — 
Birds are singings 
Music flinging 
O'er the lea; 



SPRING 3I0RNING. 39 



Rills are flowing^, 
Herds are lowing, 
Cocks are crowing 
Forth their glee. 

Buddinpr bowers, 
Bursting flowers — 
Genial showers 

Lave the green j 
Earth confessing 
Sols caressing, 
New is dressing 

Like a Queen. 

Flowers long slumbered 
Wake unnumbered 
Bee and huuibird 

To invite ; 
On their pistils, 
Pearly crystals 
Sport like vestals 

Kobed in light. 

Frogs are peeping, 
Reptiles creeping. 
From their sleeping 

Insects rise; 
All before us, 
'Neath and o'er us, 
Join in chorus 

To the skies. 



40 THE SUNFL WER. 



FREEDOM'S STAR. 



Though proud Columbia wide maintains 
Her ''Sfars and Stripes" o'er seas and plains, 
Not half the luster now pertains, 

That graced them when they first arose ! 
When Freedom first upon her uleamed, 
And Independence smiling beamed, 
Her soaring Eagle dauntless screamed 

Defiance on her tyrant foes. 

But now the wail of Slaver}^ rings; 

A cancer at her vitals stings — 

A blight and mildew o'er her flings, 

And mourning drapes her ensign brave. 
Alas, for her degenerate sons! 
Their sires ne'er blanched for tyrant's guns, 
But they in dread of proud Southrons, 

Dare scarcely whisper for the Slave! 

So long has man a Slave been trod! 
As long have Maatcru swayed the rod! 
Insulting thus their Maker, God, 

And bathed humanity in tears. 
This sordid nation yet shall wake, 
Shall all its Slavery fetters break, 
And for its wrongs atonement make 

And cheer the Slaves' declining years. 

Columbia then may rule afar, 

And millions hail her morning star, 

Bc-ecbo round the long huzza: 

"Of none destroying, none oppressed !" 



BICKERINGS. 41 



Her ''Stars and Stripes" then bright will shine, 
Lit with a hall uio-t divine; 
United all her sons combine 

In Freedom's bonds supremely blest. 1844, 



A CHAPTER ON BICKERINGS. 

TO WHOM IT CONCERNS. 



Don't harry your neighbor, Dick Grum! 

He's not made fitr a tabor. 

Nor to stick with a saber; 

Besides for your labor 
'T wont pay, Dick Grum. 

These neighborhood quarrels, Dick Grum, 

Don't spring of good morals; 

Have butter from corals, 

Or sugar from sorrels 
As soon, Dick Grum. 

Don't tease Mamma Deaver, Dick Grum, — 

Alone I pray leave her ! 

If she is a deceiver 

You'll not gain by your fever 
Against her, Dick Grum. 

'Tis an unequal battle, Dick Grum, — 

For a boy wth a rattle 

Can blatter and prattle 

And gossip and tattle 
'Bout woman, Dick Grum. 



42 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



Away with your slander, Dick Grum, — 

A gabbling old gander 

Appears a "heap" grander 

Than you as you pander 
To your spleen, Dick Grum. 

Be admonished in season, Dick Grum, — 

'Tis wasting your weasand — 

'Tis social high treason; 

Religion and reason 
Forbid it, Dick Grum. 

Incessant fault-finding, Dick Grum, 

And worniinir and winding: 

And grabbing and gri riding, 

(Ones better part blinding), 
Is ruin, Dick Grum. 

Be something or nothing, Dick Grum, — 

On self does your lothing, 

Your vaporing, wrothing, 

Y(»ur fretting and frothing 
Recoil, Dick Grum. 1850. 



VARIETIES. 



As difi'er men in stature, forms and faces. 

So they, in minds and morals, tastes and graces, 

Show parents, nations, species, stocks and races. 



THE DANDY. 



43 



THE DANDY. 



The Dandy — pshaw! the funky mess — 

Conceited, powdered noodle, 
With nauuht of value but his dress, — 

A noddy, a fopdoodle. 

This rard avis strutting goes 
On end like human creatures; 

That vacant shell behind the nose 
Is shaped like human features. 

[Tis bootless task to hunt for soul, 

No matter what our craving, 
Nought nni we do but save the hole, 

And that's not worth the saving.] 

His locks done up with curling rods, 
His bosom gemmed with broaches, 

Whate'er of him would please the gods 
Is shamed by the cockroaches. 

Trinkets adorn his paws and ears 

In fashion most ex(juisite; 
''Poll"* sees! — abashed and most in tears, 

At first cried out: 'What is it?" — 

Then, "Hell of cheat! carcass and curls 

And every merit counted. 
Fit walking-stick for silly girls. 

Brass-headed and gold — mounted!" 

* Parrot. 



44 THE SUNFL WER. 



Sooner than that waste thing, a fop, 

I'd be a clum or donkey, 
Or hootin«r owl on yon tree top. 

Or weathercock or monkey. 



THE KINDLY. 



Every kindly act we do 
Memory loves to treasure, 

Prompting to the good and true — 
Lights our way to pleasure. 

Every kind impulse of soul 
Towards a human creature, 

Adds a drop to bliss' bowl, 
Marks angelic feature. 

Every pure and gentle thought, 

Every hallowed feeling. 
Mingles nectar with each draught, 

Fount of heaven revealing. 

Sweet response of heart to heart 
Swells beyond expressing; 

Who'd not happiness impart 
Thus repaid with blessing? 



DEDICATION OF ALBUM. 



45 



DEDICATION OF ALBUM, 
For my dear Niece, Mary E. Steward. 



The little bee departs his cell 

As morning shadows vanish, 
To sip the honey dews that fell, 

His storehouse to replenish. 
The huuibird hies from her modest tree 

Where swings her downy palace, 
Kissing the blooms along the lea, 

Tasting each nectar chalice. 

So speed this book through mental bowers, 

And social landscapes tripping, 
Free as the bird that kisses the flowers, 

Or bee that the nectar is sipping. 
These virgin leaves without a stain 

To Virtue and Truth are given. 
And never be their silver chain 

By fraud or flattery riven ! 

Let Purity glow on every page, 

And Innocence play in each line; 
Blend fancy of youth with firmness of age. 

In feeling and thought divine. 
Here compliments may be expressed, 

And gratulitions offered; 
Even sweet affinities confessed, 

And gentle praises proff'ered. 

Friendships may here ambrosials bring 

Fresh from the Spirit gale; 
Aff'ection twine her off'ering, 

And love breathe the tender tale. 



46 THE S UNFL WER. 



The wealth of regal diadems 

On brow of Empress twined, 
Is nought compared with these richer gems 

Culled from the garden of mind. 

Here genius and skill may paint a book; 

Here wisdom or wit may speak, 
But never indulge in word or look 

That would tinge the young maid's cheek! 
For these, all these is this Album sent 

To greet each generous donor, 
To richer return, but pure as it went, 

To Mary its thankful owner. April, 1850. 



PRAIRIE GIRL. 



A maiden rose from her rural bed, 

In early morn in May, 
And o'er the fragrant prairie sped 

To gather a fresh boquet. 

With airy gait and fleet as the fawn. 
She flings to the breeze her tresses, 

Repainting her cheeks with the glow of dawn, 
The art that cupid confesses. 

Tasty as nature her form is dressed, 

Sincerity speaks in her face; 
Every line is beauty expressed, 

And every action, grace; 



FOLLY AND FUN. 47 



Soul unsullied with moral stain, 
And spirit as light as the bee, 

Her critic vision scans the plain 
For flowers as sweet as she. 

Her dextrous fingers snap the stems, 
Supporting the blossoms rare, 

And on her fair bosom lays the gems 
To lavish their fragrance there. 



FOLLY AND FUN. 



Folly vain and antic 

Rambling through the mazes, 
O'er the hills and meadows, 

Snatching oft" the daises. — 
Fun is growing frantic, 

As excitement crazes, 
In the lights and shadows 

Of jack-o-lantern blazes; 

Hieing after pleasure — 

Dancing onward ever, 
While the coquette treasure 

Mi)cks the vain endeavor, 
Till the murky river 

Swallows him from sight, 
And they sink forever, 

In forgotten night. 



ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF 

CHARLES MADISON CARVER, 

"Who died (as was reported by liis friend, William Plumas, who 
buried liim "beneath the shade of a pine tree,") on tlie bank of 
the Middle Yuba River, Calirornia, July 28th, 1850. His age, 
twenty-five years and one month. 



On the bleak western mount where the dark Yuba flows, 
And the Savage wild empire is keeping, 

Beneath a lone pine in their lasting repose, 
The remains of a loved one are sleeping. 

He left his "sweet home" 'mid remonstrance and tears, 

(His "adieu" was a farewell firever), 
To meet in the sequel his friends' darkest fears, 

To return again never — no never ! 

But to lie down and die on the "gold-digger's" claim, 
Nor a "way side acquaint" even near him; 

No love of a brother to whisper his name, 
Nor sister's affection to cheer him : 

The forest his shelter, the cold earth his bed, 

A stone lying there was his pillow; 
But who will inhume when the spirit is fled? — 

Who plant o'er his resting the willow? 

Poor boy! — 'tis sad on his exit to think — 
The pangs as each life drop is wasting — 

Prostrated and helpless and poised on the brink, 
And life to its terminus hasting;! 



DEATH OF C. M. CARVER. 49 



Oh — could his dim eye ere it darkens in death, 
Catch one glimpse of a sister or brother! — 

Or could he be suffered his vanishing breath 
To breathe in the "sweet ear of mother!" 

0, how 't would console him! his laboring heart 
Would laugh in the midst of its anguish; 

'T would ease to his suffering senses impart, 
And e'en reconcile him to languish. 

But these are forbid him, and Charlie, unblest, 

Alone on a "placer" reclining, 
There sighs to the darkness and sinks to his rest, 

And worms gather in for their dining. 

EPISODE. 

To die in "sweet home," on a love-circled bed, 

A fond sister's hand to caress him; 
A dear mother's bosom to pillow his head, 

And sweet tones to comfort and bless him ; 

Her angelic ear to record his last breath. 

Breathed out like the zephyr's soft sighing — 

Is this the dark moment they're wont to call deaths 
No — surely, this can not be dying! — 

And friendship to heap him a neat rural grave, 

And lay the green turf for a cover, 
Where ivy will twine and the amaranth wave, 

And angelic spirits o'er hover. 

No: call it not cJcafh — it never can be, 
But a transit from sighing and sorrow: 

The spirit escapes from its prison house free, 
And wakes to a happier morrow. 



50 THE SUNFLOWER. 



But to lie down and die on a 2;uld-di<r^er's claim, 
Far away on the cold ruj^>red uiuuntain, 

Too sick to return by ihe pathway he came, 
Or crawl to the thirst-cooling fountain: 

No music to hear but the vulture and crow 

And buzzard in villainous clamor, 
As hoverini^ o'er him expiiin<r below, 

They jabber their horrible <;rammar. 

Yes — to die like the wolf, the cold earth for his lair, 
Ai]d iamishiiiii kites flapping o'er him; 

The zephyr that fans him the breath of the bear 
That ea*j;erly waits to devour him I — 

But enoujih — 0, mercy ! beneath a dark screen — 
The heart-shockini: traj^ed^ — seal it! — 

0, Ijethe! embrace the soulsioktiiing scene,' 
And never — no, never — reveal it I 



The breeze of the valley that moans through the pine, 

Seems sad with the tale of his dying. 
And plaintive implores of the Mercy Divine 

A respite Irom sorrow and sighing. 

The wild horse and bison and moose of the plain. 

In silence move oft tn their haven; 
The tribes wont to feast on the blood of the slain. 

Forget for a season to raven. 

The yell of the panther, the growl of the bear, 
Are hushed when they chance to approach him: 

The invisible powers have made him their care, 
And harm is forbidden to touch him. 



DEATH OF C. M. CARVER. 



51 



Ye fallows that ^rrazo by the meadow-girt lake 

And drink of its mirroring bosom; 
Ye pheasants that brood 'neath the sheltering brake 

Where the plum and the wild apple blossom. 

Ye squirrels and conies that chatter and toy 
'iMnng herbai^e and trees. h;iste before her 

The mother — tbe mother ber(,'t't of her boy, 
And unite ye in moans to deplore her! 

The eagle that towers in Sol's vivid light, 
Beyond where the rude tempests gather, 

Or sits like the genius of storm on the hei"^ht 
Nor heeds the tornadoes beneath her, — 

Yes: she that can laugh at the sky-wrecking storm, 
Now cowers her proud pinions before him, 

And screams out tiie wail (tf that desolare form 
The mother — the mother that bore him. 

Ye robins and thrushes a cand here sing — 
And the pine where our hero reposes, 

Ye seasons endow it perpetual Spring 
And twine it with supernal roses. 

Now fare thee well. Charlie, adieu, hapless child! 

Thou wast torn from the bosoms that bless thee! 
Let sylvans around ihee chant wood-notes wild, 

And sylphs in their sweetest caress thee. 

Yes: fare thee well, brother, a lasting farewell! 

JMountain winds their sad requiem ^ing thee: 
Each leaf of the pine ever whispeis thy knell 

And elves their devotion aye bring thee. 

There calm be thy slumber unruffled by dream 
Or the ''grisly' that near by is growling; 



52 THE SUNFL WER. 



Unmindful alike of the eagle's wild scream, 
Or the ravening wolf's angry howling. 



Intense is thy quiet and peaceful thy bed, 
Unheeding the earth rocking thunder; 

The lightning may shiver the "pine" at thy head, 
But nought will awake thee from under! 

Thy struggle and turmoil so early are done, 
Both venture and ''gold fever" ended, 

But thy shade a hereafter far better has won, 
By clime and kin spirits befriended. 



YOUTH. 



Merry as the fairy elf 

With her shadow playing, 
Thoughtless of its cou-ing self. 

Youth is careless straying j 
Changeful as the fitful vane, 
Wayward runs the giddy train 

Through the dreamy mazes; 
Glimpses of a better day 
Flung to light the better way, 

Are lost in passion's hazes. 



THE NEGLECTED BOY. 

Child of ignorant and thoughtless parents, abandoned to the 
society of vulgar, vicious associaies, often much older than 
he — being an apt scholar, soon becomes schooled in all the 
vices of Billingsgate, and grows an expert teacher in the perpet- 
ual school in whicli himself graduated. Thus vices and crimes 
are multiplied indefinitely. 



COUNTRY VS. CITY. 



53 



See him run his wanton race, 

Careless, crazed and fearless; 
Wild in folly's giddy chase, 

Lost in mazes cheerless. 
Smothered conscience scarcely warns, 

Reckles-^ of the morrow. 
Plants his future path with thorns, 

Spreads his bed with s irrow; 
Grows to manhood in di'-<2:race — 

Mercy bleeds to tell it! — 
Blots God's imaire from his face, 

And for nou^jht would sell it! 
How can reason him control — 

Sentiments all bli<ilited, 
Fires of Etna flame his soul, 

Love in lust benighted? 
He strolls a blot upon the earth, 

Filthy tatters clothe him, 
Lives for ribaldry and mirth, 

All things decent loathe him. 



COUNTRY vs. CITY; 
NATURE m. ART. 



A buxom damsel in her teens, 
Weary of rustic country scenes. 
To city hied to shed her greens 

And don the graces; 
Alack — to her refinement means. 



Airs and grimaces! 



54 THE SUNFLOWER. 



With p:entle f<«lk to walk and speak, 
She barters off the bloouiiug cheek, 
The winsome niien and manners meek, — 

These charms of woman — 
And calls them now too vulgar, weak, 

Too rude and common. 

Now mark her on the city street, 
With her companions there you meet, 
See you divine Diana's ^ait 

And fair proportions? 
No: but det.triiiity complete — 

Their gait, distortions. 

Got up by modish forms and liws, — 
Great dolls hung over with gewgaws, 
As beads and wampujn deck the squaws, 

And vain as motikeys; 
As vacant-Miijided as the daws 

Are fashion's flunkies. 

She h'ifers on the pronunide. 

Or lolls beneafh some myrtle shade, 

Stealing the heart of some young blade 

As green 's her shade is. — 
These grotesque things and thus displayed. 

Are yclept, '-ladies." 

Or 'mid the throng where cat-gut squeals 
Its dissipatinu peals on peals. 
She whirls abouf on antic heels, 

]^y mi(i night tapcM's. 
And cuts in polkas, waltzes, reels. 

Her antic capers. 

Thus flutters round the city scrawn. 
Stuffed efiigy of silk and lawn. 



TO A BROTHER RHYMER. 



55 



How life was smothered in its (3awn 

Is melancholy ! 
The native beauties with her born 

Were lost in folly. 

Compare the lassie country bred — 

Her easy, firm, poetic tre?id. 

Her feeling heart and thinking head, 

And finest ken, 
All worthy to be wooed and wed 

To best of men. 

Give body, brain in balance just, 
Untaint with falsehood, envy, lust, 
Replt^te with con.'^taricy and trust 

And virtues steady, 
And be^uinu' goes your gilded crust, 

Your stuflF-built lady. 

0. give. Ye Powers I Great Nature's forms 
Which Life's impassit ned current warms, 
A casket of ut)fa<ling charms, 

I'll bless the Giver, 
And clasp the treasure in my arms. 

And love forever. 1850. 



TO A BROTHER RHYMER— O. FULLER. 



My Friend, my much respected Otis: — 
IjCt nje intrude upon your notice 
A word — a verse or two of Rhyme, 
To while away an idle time — 



56 THE SUNFL WER. 



About ourselves and matters here; 

I'll serve them up as they appear — 

That is, to me: perchance I'm swajed, 

You know each fancies most his trade; 

Whate'er we. do is aptly done, 

Be 't making prayers, or pies, or fun! 

But others haply think reverse, 

And, stead of blessing;, deal a curse. 

One calls me captious, or unkind, 

Another, ''heretic," or blind; 

Another, "bi^ot," dolt, or fool 

Fit only for the dunce's stool; 

If others call me villain, knave. 

Vile mammon's, or ambition's slave, 

What of it? — Let them gossip on, 

I'll never heed them pro or con. 

But if they say I wrong the truth; 

Or am insensible of ruth; 

Or that I counter run to justice, 

I swear as Heaven High my trust is, 

To throw the gauntlet, join the issue 

And ravel out their lying tissue. 

With God my judge, angels my jury, 

Let them array their hellish fury, 

Appear in forms of fiends or men, 

I'll face them matched as one to ten — 

But hold! — where am I — and my theme?- 

My Muse has dozed me into dream. 

The jade! — But I'll set out again. 

And steady her with tenser rein. 

And ''first and foremost"' let me tell 

We all — myself and Em — are well. — 

Yes, Em, my model, darling Em! — 

A peerless, undisputed gem — 

No gem Golconda ever furnished. 



TO A BROTHER RHYMER. 



57 



Immensely richer even unburnished; 
Her charms are true intrinsic worth, 
The wealth that Heaven bestows in 'earth. 

Poets, crackbrained verbal-cobblers. 
Gabble and prate like apes and gobblers, 
Of sjlph like forms and fairy faces, 
Of taper- waists, yffected graces; 
Of neck Hnd brow of ceruse white 
Neath puff and frizzle, left and right; 
Of smiles as sunbeams, tears as showers 
Of bliss from Eden's dewy bowers- 
Of teeth as of the coral bed 
Where naiads or the mermaids sleep, 
Or as of ivory mammoth shed; 
Of cheeks as roses painted deep, 

Or eyes as stars, or li^s as rubies 

Ho! ye crackbrains. ye are boobies, 
Thus to ransack earth, all nature 

Just to liken human creature! 

Creature with undying soul, 

Earth his cradle, Heaven his goal. 

Your twattle on a theme like this 

Is only silly childishness. 

To be consistent, I opine. 

Wisdom bids you draw M/.s line: 

'•Discard the human form divine 

At once, and choose with skillful hands 

The queen of Fashion's artful plans, 

And conjure up of clay or plaster. 

Of porcelain or alabaster. 

Or paste or putty or of dough, 

A thing, but shape it so and so. 

With puff and splinter, chord and pad 

[Without these any form is bad ] 



58 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



Borrow tints from limner's brushes" — 

(Hark! — a whisper gentle hushes, 

]^t'gs my music be adiiiotjished 

Lest the gentry be astonished; 

But 'tis truth, and vow, shell tell it, 

Puddled hriuistone tho' she smell it I) 

'"Paint upi»n it shades and flushes, 

Counterfeiting nature's blushes; 

Teeth it with rhips of shells and pearls; 

As shift for Juno's merry curls. 

Snatch from mane of Arab steed 

Chestnut tresses as you need, — 

Range all items tasty, neat, 

[(/all it. charming th(>ugh 'ts a cheat] 

Obscure all nature ever did, 

[What can't be banished can be hid] 

Then dress in keeping with the rest — 

[Though 'dressed ' means only .sr«i/ dressed] 

And o'er the whole tack frills and foolery 

Till grave baboons convulse with drollery. 

And you ve a /'/'(// to your liking, 

With form and uait and features striking: 

A creature worthy of your care. 

Soulless as its makers are!" 



Talk of sunbeams stars and showers, 

Of nectars from Kdenean b 'Wers, 

Of corals from the brackish d^ep 

Whei'e mermaids and their merheayx sleep 

With trash like these I never name her, 

The likening would but defame her. 

As Sol presides without a peer, 

So she, the winsome, winning (If, 

To love and all the virtues dear 

Is like — like nothing but herself! 



TO A BROTHER RHYMER. 59 



No sun e'er beamed so pure a ray; 
No fragrant bloom so sweet and gay 
As Euima's soul of love and truth, 
Perennial in blooming youth; 
Shrinking fnim unholy hands, 
In its spdtless b auty stands; 
Shuns the path the sordid pl<»d, 
And grows the image of her God. 
Her glowing bosom bliss inspiring, 
Kindred hearts with rapture firing, 
Thrills the ardor of her spouse, 
Wakes anew his youthful vows, 
Tames the tiger to the dove, 
With her atmosphere of love, 
Euima true to life and nature, 
Loved and 1 iving every creature, 
From all wayward iui pulse free, 
Ne'er forgets propriety; 
Smooths my pillow, lulls to rest, 
Sooths my arjgui«h when oppressed, 
Calms my passions when they rise. 
Points me to our native skies; 
Meekly Heaven's Mid imploring. 
First eur God. then me, adoring. 
Is she not a treasure — say? 
If not, where is one I pray? 

What more, you ask, could Heaven bestow 
To gladden our estate below. 
And make our pathway smoother run. 
Towards our goal — life's setting sun? 

We own our blessings, own our bliss, 
Excharige the unforbidden kiss; 
Our conjugal communion sweet 



60 THE SUNFL WER. 



Wants one thin": more to be complete. 

Strangers look in and call us blessed, 

Declare us happier than the rest. 

But where's the "chit" to lisp our name, 

And Ian the phil'profjenic flame? 

Yes, where the "roddlin wee things" — where, 

To while away domestic care; 

To dandle on the parent knee. 

And win them with their guileless glee? 

Those plants that bud in life's bri<iht spring, 

And round the parent branches cling. 

To glad them, as in opening )outh, 

Their minds unfold in love and truth; 

Their cares increasing to assuage, 

And guard their steps in drooping age. 

Nature designed a stately son 

A staff for age to lean upon. 

But childless ones their P. ]M course, 

Decrepit plod, with 'bating force; 

Burden-^ increase as strength decays; 

Forgot by iViends of other days: 

Thus through their lonely. Img downhill 

They weary totter, totter still. 

Oh, friend, I'm at a goal arrived. 
Befooled, banib loz ed. wheedled, gyved; 
A goal I never started for. — 
I aimed as much at a Punic war. — 
My teasing Muse has run me hazy. 
Or tantalized me blue or crazy. — 
But never mind iti if I die for 't, 
I just as well may laugh as cry for 't. — 
And here I cast my quill one side. 
And let the muse and fully slide. 



BLOOMERS. 61 



Lest something worse mayhap befall me, 
Or simpleton you justly call me. 
But deem me, 

Yours, through smile or frown, 
Till my old vital clock runs down. 

April 6th, 1851. 



BLOOMERS. 

'TO UNIVERSAL QIRLDOM.' 



Come girls, don the Bloomers, 

That model attire, 
So jiuip, so Convenient, 
1 look to admire! 
So modest, so tidy, so tasty and trim, 
So fitly adapted to person and limb. 

The dress for the concert. 

The visit, the call. 
The church, or the party, 
The weddin<r, the ball. 
The journey, the country, the city, the ville, 
Becoming the woman go whither she will. 

No burden of dry goods 

A load for a ?hip, 
Hung fantastic over 
And trailing from hip 
And brushing the army of brogans they meet. 
And sweeping the suUage of sidewalk and street. 

No tripping of suitors' 
At dances or fairs. 



62 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



No treading on dresses 
In skipping up stairs, 
No hazard of gathers, of flounces or tacks, 
Exposure or tangle in mounting the hacks. 

The girls in their Bloomers 

Can caper and run, 
A match for the "fellows" 
In frolic and fun; 
Can fleet through a thicket, scale mountain and ledge, 
Chase game o'er the prairie, or vault o'er a hedge. 

Let silly ones rally 

And bluff you with sneers, 
What matter their ranting 
And flouting and jeers*/ 
Their clacking is harmless, and stupid their jibe, 
Society buzzards — detestable tribe ! 

Beshrew the vile boddice! — 

Why longer be slaves 
To Fashion, that goddess. 
The cjuean of the knaves? 
Spurn lacing and padding, those tricks of the gump, 
Let waist "slim and taper" be normal and plump. 

God never put bnddiee. 
Or splinter and string 
On robins and linnets, 
And bade them to sing; 
His fashion is freedom of muscles and lungs, 
And harmony tempers their musical tongues. 

('Twould be as judicious 

To rig up the tongs 
In dangling dresses 

To tangle the prongs, 



TOBACCO CUE WING PARSON. 63 



Then press them to serve about fireplace or stove, — 
How labored their action ! how awkward they move!) 

God never rigged rabbits 
And fawns of the wood 
In draggliijg habits 
To trail ill the mud; 
But wrapped them in vesture so simple and fair, 
To gambol and frolic as free as the air. 

The lasses of P^den, 

The Hour is, are dressed 
In Bloomers befittii g 
That land nf the blessed, 
Their swains in love-making seem ravished with bliss, 
To see them in costume so charming as this. 

So doff the old prisons, 
Nor don them again, 
That bring to the living 
Death, trouble and pain! 
Put on the new 'parti so natty and warm, 
Both shelter and shadow in sunshine ai d storm. 

February 20tb, 1852. 



OUR TOBACCO CHEWING PARSON. 



Our Parson tells us of a ''Holy Ghost," 

[Its meaning puzzles louts like us to ferret]. 

Applauding it with many a pious toast, 

A thing of glorious, transcendent merit, 

And no doubt pure! for so he bold proclaims it 



64 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



In pulpit, with a cheek distended wide 

With that inspiring morsel, "quid," he calls it, 

Of the narcotic weed that sonje kill lice with, 

And not an angel ever could be nice with, 

Nor any art or subterfuge can hide: 

His mumbling tongue splutters in the juice 

Till dikes comply, and spurts the stinking sluice! 

If Ghost keeps H'tly coming such a way, 

Nothing can foul it, come through what it may! 



BIPED TOBACCO WORMS. 



Oh, Tobacco — 
Yile Tobacco — 

Oh, the nerve-searing weed! 
Eat or drink it — 
Who would think it- 

Ever make it human feed! 
The exotic 
Narcotic 

From barbarous Yucatan, 
Savage folly — 
Melancholy ! — 

Saddled sorely on man. 

Chorus: Oh, I pity, 

Pity, pity— 

Oh, Tobacco's poor slave! 
He is drunken, 
He is sunken, 

Now no more the free, brave: 



BIPED TOBACCO WORMS. 



65 



How depraving, 

Ever-slaving, 
Is his craving who can tell? 

Oh, it thralls him, 

Oh, it palls him, 
Oh, he's cravened with the spell I 

Oh. his chawins:. 

Chawing, chawing. 
Drivel drawing from his cud; 

Oh, his spitting, 

Spitting, spitting. 
Miss or hitting with his flood! 

Oh. his pnffing. 

Puffing, puffilliT^ 

Cheeks a fuffing with the fume! 

Lord deliver 

jNJe forever 
From his breath and sputtered spume! 

Oh, their "dipninir/' 
>V omen dipping. 
Dribble dripping Maccaboy; 

Nasty uring, 

Past enduring — 
Only luring to destroy! 

Lnpping, dusting — 

How disgusting 
Is this lusting from the South! 

Fusty blisses 

Are the kisses 
Of the Miss' dirty mouth? 

Oh, the snuffinjr. 
Snuffing, snuffing 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



"Rappee" stuffing in the head: 
Nose a dust hole, 
And the worst hole 

But that curs'd hole, Pluto's shade! 
So they snuff it, 
Chaw and puff it, 

Spit and blurb it here and there, 
Till we fear us, 
Lest they near us 

And besmear us with a share. 



Priesth/ 'Religion 's but a brilliant toy — 
Mere Fashion's plaything, witlings to decoy, 
And idle maudlin folly to enjoy. 



WHO IS THE MURDERED WIFE? 



Not she who meets the assassin's stroke 

Of pistol, bludgeon or knife; 
Nor who on the racking wheel is broke — .^ 

Not she is the murdered wife. 

Not she who flung on the Bramin's pyre, 

Or sinks in the battle's strife. 
Or hangs to appease the law's dread ire — 

Not she is the murdered wife. 

Not she who, mad with the Lethean draught 
Or perfidy — stung out of life; 



WHO IS THE MURDERED WIFE. 67 



Or slain by the red-man's venomed shaft — 
Not she is the murdered wife. 

But she who, ruled by him who sways 
The law, the purse and the sword, 

In murderous dread the beck obeys 
Of him the law made her lord: 

She who endures the angry tono-ue. 
And pales in the raging grip, — 

Her tender soul more keenly stung 
By the scorn of the curling lip. 

Who meets the assault of the fiery eye, 
And suffers the weight of blows; 

Hears words that human soul deny 
And fiendish soul disclose. 

'Tis she who cares and suffers and toils 

In a home of endless strife, 
A pittance scant her only spoils, 

She, she is the murdered lolfe! 

Thus all the tendrils that would twine, 

And senses to chime in tune. 
All blighted as the tender vine 

Is bitten by frost in June. 

So -custom and law have fixed her sphere. 
And doomed her to abject life! 

And where is endured lot half so drear 
As this, the slow-murdered wife? 



68 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



THE OLD WIFE AND THE NEW. 



The old wife toiled in the kitchen, 

A slave to her family care: 
The new wife is served by domestics, 

And rocks in her parlor chair. 

The old wife brou,<2:ht all the water, 
Even cut her own wood at the door: 

The new one reclines on her Sffa, 
Scarce setting her foot to the floor. 

The old wife was cook, to be chided 

And faulted for every dish: 
The new one is petted and feasted 

And cherished in every wish. 

The old wife so patiently struirgled, 

Thoui>h wants and desires were denied; 

The new is re<ialed with her novels, 
And courted to visit and ride. 

The old wife schemed for a garment 

In which to be decently seen: 
The new one is robed in apparel 

Befitting a Duchess or Queen. 

The old wife was 'bashed with vile language, 

So shocking to delicate ear: 
The new is most kindly and softly 

Addressed as 'My Dearest Dear." 

Thus the old wife was labored and jaded 
And pushed to a premature grave: 

Wh\le the new is an idle consumer 
Of all that her pleasure can crave. 



THE WOMAN. 



69 



THE WOMAN. 



A clothes-horse to labor 
And tus^, 
The Juggernaut Fashion 
To lug. 
Alas for the women 

Whom fashion depraves — 
One sex of the human 
Fit only for slaves! 

She toys with her beauty 

And birth, 
And sports with her duty 

And worth; 
Devoted to Fashion 

And chained in her team, 
*Tis the impulse and passi<>n 
Of the woman's life-dream! 

At the nod of opinion 

She falls 
A pitiful minion, 

And crawls, — 
A mind so enslaven' — 

Contented to be — 
A spirit so craven 
How can it be free! 

0, Sol ! Hide thy glories 
In weeds, 

And night will envelop 

Her deeds. 



70 



THE SUNFL WER. 



0, Luna, fair Luna, 
Deep f-hadow thy face, 

For the lapse of thy sisters, 
Thy sex's disgrace! 

0, ye stars droop your eyelids 
And weep, 

Till embosomed in Lethe 
Ye sleep, 

For the weakness of woman 
Who folly thus craves, 

One sex of the human 

Fit ouly for slaves ! 



THE GUARDIAN. 



THE UNITED SEVEN. 



"Take me to thy hefirt!" said a timid young maid, 

A deep mantled hlush on her cheek, 
In manner so modest, so sweetly afraid, 

That she startled to hear herself speak. 
Proportions so peerless no creature could show, 

To heighten would more than complete; 
Her countenance lit with such angelic glow, 

Enravished, I fell at her feet: 

So enchantingly pure this spirituous flower. 

So timidly shrinking fr(mi touch, 
I called her Divine! — 0, Omnipotent Power! 

Was T faulty for deeming her such! 
I paused: and annn a presence appeared; 

I listened to what it would say : 



THE GUARDIAN. 



71 



It bid me "embrace the enchantress T heard, 
And walk in her lite-cheering way!" 

"This nymph is Youns^ Innocence blending 

With Modesty, Purity, Truth 
And Virtue and Love, and are lendins: 

To Beauty its undying Youth. 

"Take her to thy bnsom and cherish, 

Nor suffer her more to dt-part ; 
She comes to enliuhten and nourish, 

To soothe and to gladden the heart; 
Embrace her, her sweets are supernal 

And wake not a blush or a tear. 
Embrace, for her charms are eternal 

And bloom through an undying year. 

"She may drink of the bubbling fountain; 

Or lave in the bright purling rill, 
Or sniff the wild breeze of the mountain, 

Or laugh with sunshine on the hill; 
She may ramble in woodland or meadow, 

Or regale in the shade at her ease; 
She may cull fresh flowers of the prairie. 

Or the bloom that o'erspangles the trees. 

"The beasts of the field shall befriend her, 

And the birds warble enrols of bliss. 
The eagle his pinions shall Irnd her, 

And the dove give her welcoming kiss. 
The pole shall provide her with ermine. 

And Afric present her a plume, 
Pearls shall be the gift of old Ocean, 

And the Indies will waft their perfume. 



72 THE SUNFLOWER. 



"And when this earth ceases revolving 

And swinjis from its balancing pole, 
Creation in dotage dissolving, 

And the heavens rolled up as a scroll, 
Then the stars shall be gathered as jewels 

To circle her glorious neck, 
And the sun as a gem will be chosen 

Her hallowed bosom to deck." 



TO ELLA. 



As thirsty noon-beams panting peer 

Through blooming foliage to the pool, 
To slake their drouth in waters clear 

That soft repose in bower so cool. 
So pants my thirsting soul to grasp 

Thee, matchless Ella. — empress charms ! — 
And to my aching bosom clai^p 

Thy spotless image in my arms. 

No marring pencil ever traced 

One line upon thy form so fair; 
Nor was one beauty e'er efFdCed, 

But all are fresh and blooming there. 
Just so, the beauties of thy mind 

Shine out in all their native love 
Truth, Virtue, Purity, cojnbined, 

Begotten in the realm above. 



THIS AGE. 73 



Wilt not thou, Sweet One, deign one smile 

To soothe this burning heart of mine — 
To snatch me from this drear exile, 

Where all within can only pine? 
One beck from thee would cheat the grave, 

And save me from its dread embrace; 
Nought but thy magic power can save 

The hopeless wretch that seeks thy grace. 



THIS AGE. 



This Age is an age of progression, 

The people go crazed on injprovement; 

Staid ones are leaving time-honored professions 

To grab for some newly-burn movement. 

All things beyond yesterday, stupid and stale; 

No speed short of '60 per hour on the rail !" 

Time was when they practiced good will toward others, 
And argued that all men should mingle as brothers, 
And treat with affection wives, sisters and mothers. 
But these shallow graces are banished the schools. 
In chant, or in anthem, — Who'd tune it or time it! — 
In song, or in sonnet, — Who'd rhythm or rhyme it! — 
The sweet melophene, — Who'd tone it or chime it! — 
These items are trifles, the small work of fools. 

In the rules of the age, what contrivers or planners 
Would think of instilling good morals or manners; 
Or wish for sweet Peace to o'erhover their banners. 
Since a prayer is valued far less than an oath ! 



74 THE SUNFL WER. 



For the feelings and pleasures of others uncaring, — 
Their common palaver is ^wa^'ger'ni', swearing; 
Haipstrings of the social thus wantonly tearing, 
Begins with the bantling and grows with his growth. 

"So clamor these ranters, that woman is equal 

Of man ! — In soothing their ardor determine to speak 

well 
Of nothing that is, — but we'll show in the sequel 
That woman now fills her appropriate place: 
Just cast back the glance to remote misty ages. 
And trace her relation down history's pages, 
Acknowledged by doctors, priests, poets and sages. 
She's but an append to the masculine race." 

Who'd be so insane as to set obligation. 

Except the acknowledged one, "consideration !" — 

Every man is a sovereign — a masterly nation! — 

With manifest destiny wide as the earth. 

Enlightened Benevolence now is a bubble 

And Justice and Mercy not worth half their trouble: 

The Money Machine is the only thing noble — 

The only creation deserving a birth. 

The Democrat boor turns jobber and banker — 
Nabob of the age; his better though lanker, 
Adown at his heels, and minus a spanker. 
The Slave digs his Masters per cent from the soil. 
'Tis Democrat justice : rich power may revel 
In wealth, while the serf finds his plebeian level, 
Forked over at last to the dogs or the devil, 
Or the dirt where his hands were so ured to toil. 

February, 1855. 



THE SLEEPY BABY. 



75 



THE SLEEPY BABY.* 



Sat a doating mother, mild, 
In her lap a little child ; 
Never sweeter cherub smiled 

In the land of bliss: 
Eyes of finer li<rht and blue 
Never met fond mother's view — 
Telling of the good and true — 

Than were seen in this. 

Charming chubby eight months old, 
Every day new leads unfold 
Richer than Australian i2;old; 

In the mother's eye, 
One such brilliant does out-shine 
Sun, and moon, and stars divine, 
Though they interblend infine 

Through the o'erbending sky. 

Soon the baby tires of play. 
Flings his playthin<zs all away, 
Becks the sleepy baby's Fay, 

Falls on mother's breast, 
Cuddles puling in the lap — 
Restless for his wonted nap — 
Takes his anodyne, the pap. 

Sinks to quiet rest. 

In that Lethe of repose, 
Every ill the baby knows 
Fades like dewdrop from the rose. 
Blessed, balmy sleep! — 

*Albert H. Sears (adopted). 



76 THE SUNFLOWER. 



Sleep on, darling — sleep, sleep on, 
Angels wait thy rest upcn; 
Mamma breathes her orison 
From her bosom's deep. 

Plano, Ills., February Ist, 1857. 



THE SUPREME. 



0, Thou Supreme, Creative Law! 

[Whence minor laws their force, and mode, 
And wondrous skill and wisdom draw]. 

Thee I adore and call Thee God. 

The loves in human souls that shine 
Abloom in such communion sweet, 

Particles are of Thee, Divine, 

And pay to Thee their homage meet. 

The fruits of plant and shrub and tree, 
Bespeak Thy Wisdom, Goodness, Love, 

Recall my truant thoughts towards Thee, 
And woo me toward the life above. 

The tiny flowers whose peering eyes 
Up glint from out the virgin sod, 

Whisper and smile 'neath sun and skies. 
Sweet incense to their parent, God. 

The birds that tune their mellow throats 

To Nature's matchless cadences. 
Tune but to Thee their richest notes. 

Their purest, deepest symphonies. 



TEE SUPREME. Ill 



Each flinty leaf and bone and shell 
Embalmed in stone from dateless yore, 

Of Thee a wondrous tale does tell 
Of countless cycles ^one before. 

No fragrance of the scented rose; 
No dewdrop in the lily's cell; 
No fountain from the ledge that flows; 
No streamlet dancing through the dell; 
No wave of ocean's pulsing tide; 
No pebble on the shining shore; 
No mountain high; no prairie wide; 
No drifting snow; no cascade's roar; 
No prismed bow; no vernal shower; 
No tempest full; no thunder's crash; 
No earthquake's heave; no whirlwind's power; 
No beaming star; no lightning's flash; 
No forest green; no barren sand; 
No beetling clifi"; no grassy s id, 
But owns its source, Thy forming hand, 
Okvns Thee Creator, owns Thee God! 

'Tis thus from out All Nature's Heart, 

Spontaneous adoration springs, 
Warms and illumes each sentient part. 

And Life respondent ceaseless sings. 

March 4th, 1863. 



78 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



'BE TRUE TO THYSELF. 



Be true to thyself — though a maxim unwrit 
In the statutes and laws and traditions of old; 

Though a gem in old Tyrann}'iS crown never set, — 
^Tis a jewel more precious than silver or gold. 

"Be true to thyself," ever bubbles the fountain ; 

Gushing and sparkling and rollicking free, 
Born of the granites and sands of the mountain, 

And hieing to rest in the deep-bosomed sea. 

"Be true to thyself," sighs the dark jileaming river, 
With historic story i'rom ages the first. 

As it shimmers along its green valleys forever. 
To sooth the old sea-god's unquenchable thirst. 

"Be true to thyself," booms the turbulent ocean, 
Dashing its surges upon the lee shore, 

[Old Neptune's life pulses in angry commotion], 
Or hushing their breakers to lullaby roar. 

"Be true' to thyself," the petrel is crying, 
Sweeping aloft through the hurricane's rave, 

Queen of the scene where the tempest is flying, 
Braving alike the tornado and wave. 

"Be true to thyself," the eagle is screaming; 

"Be true to thyself," the grim lion roars; 
"Be true to thyself," the swallow is streaming, 

And the thrush in the bush her re-echoing pours. 



''BE TRUE TO THYSELF:'' 79 



"Be true to thyself," the tiny bee humming; 

"Be true to thyself," loud rallies the lark; 
"Be true to thyself," the partridi^e is drumming, 

And approving, the firefly kindles her spark. 

"Be true to thyself," the gay peacock clamors; 

"Be true to thyself," the guinea-hen chimes; 
"Be true to thyself," the woodpecker hammers, 

"Be true to thy nature, relations and times!" 

"Be true to thyself," is a maxim of Love, 
Imblending itself with each sensitive force; 

The wisdom of ages and light from above, 

All Nature's prime mover and God for its source. 

"Be true to thyself," is the maxim of God, 
With the promise of final fruition replete, 

As well of the Heaven where man never trod, 
As of dark earth material under his feet. 

June, 1863. 



"COME TO THE CONCERT?' 



The church bell is dinging 

Its clangor and moan, 
A-swinging and singing 

In 80I0 alone ; 
Out-rinirin<:^ and flinging: 

Its grave monotone 
In call to the concert: 

Chorus : — "Come to the concert, 

Come to the concert, come?" 



80 



THE SUNFL WER. 



The redbreast is pouring 

A matin so sweet, 
The echoes encoring, 

The warbles repeat; 
Devotion adoring 

Confesses the treat, 
And hies to the concert: 

'"CoDie to the concert,'^ &c. 

The thrush on the apple 

In hi«ili pre^sure steam 
Is dashing the orchard 

With rollicking stream — 
A roistering river 

Of musical ream — 
That bids to the concert: 

"Come to the concert," &c. 

The lark in the meadow 

At gloaming of day 
Inditing responses 

In emulous lay, 
In cadence so mellow 

That seemeth to say: 
"Come all to the concert !'' 

"Come to the concert," &c. 



(in winter). 

The beautiful snow 
Is merry with song, 

A-lifting and sifting 
And shifting along 



COME TO THE CONCERT. 



81 



Like musical manna, 

Invitint; the throng 
To glide to the concert. 

"Come to the concert," &c. 

The dainty wind skimmers 

The crystalized steam, 
The reefy snow shimmers; 

The shiny tracks gleam; 
The stars' idle gliumjers 

Melodious seem 
Of mystical concert: 

"Come to the concert/' &c. 

The sleigh bells are rhyming 

Their musical mode; 
The creaking sleighs chiming 

Beneath the gay lo;id, 
The prancing steed timing 

Their pace on the road 
In speed to the concert: 

"Come to the concert," &c. 

All Nature it quaffing 

The musical bowl, 
This life of the spirit 

And food of the soul : 
The angels with music 

Regale and console, 
United in concert: 

"Come to the concert," &c. 

In music our kindred 

Stoop down from the skies, 



83 THE SUNFLOWER. 



In during affection 

OF unbroken ties, 
To wake aspirations, 

And pray us to rise 
To heavenly concert: 

"Come to the concert," &c. 



1865. 



WELCOME TO OUR RETURNING SOLDIERS. 



Companies "F" and "K," One Hundred and Twenty-seventh 
Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry. This regiment went 
through to the coast with Sherman. The boys returned here 
the nth of June, 1865, and were welcomed to a dinner in the 
grove at L. Steward's. This piece was got up for that occasion, 
and was read there. 

Hail to the Heroes we welcome to-day, 

Back to our tables, our hearts, and our homes! 

Clear ye the track for the gallant array ; 

Unfurl your banners and rattle your drums! 

Welcome our Heroes with laurels o'erhung, 
Earned in the conflicts of {slaughter and blood, 

Where from the Rebels the conquest they wrung; 
And proud in his glory each Patriot stood. 

Called by his country in peril and need; 

Proud to be marshalled beneath the Old Stars; 
Ready to follow where Sherman would lead, 

Crushing rebellion and trampling its ''bars:" 



WELCOME RETURNING SOLDIERS. 83 



Heroes of Chickasaw, Arkansaw Post, 

Mission Ridge, A^icksburg, Champion Hill, 

Jonesborough, Atlanta and — on to the coast 
The invisible Phalanx marched conquerors still. 

These are our fathers and brothers and sons, 
Grimed with exp)sure and labor and sweat; 

Scarred with torpedos and sabres and guns, 
Scenes and privations they'll never forget. 

Ye children, and mothers, and sisters, and wives, 
Who've waited their absence in sadness so long. 

And dreamed of the perils that threatened their lives, 
Nor smiled at a banquet, nor joined in a song, 

Come now to this feast, for your grieving is past — 
The sun of your sorrow forever is set — 

The bliss of reunion comes greeting at last, 
And the kiss of affection is given and met. 

Fond mother! again hug your boy to your heart; 

Here end your dark bodings and watchings and fears: 
Dire war will compel you more never to part — 

Come bathe him in kisses and wash him in tears? 

Not the tears that you shed on him three years ago, 
When the war-dogs were howling so fierce on our 
track; 

And our sky seemed o'erdraped with a mantle of woe. 
Nor Hope dared to whisper and promise him back; 

But the tears of affection now pleasure-distilled 
From a bosom so full that without them 'twould 
burst! — 

Thanks to High Heaven his blood was not spilled. 
And his corse left to mingle the battlefield's dust! 



84 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



Here one pang embitters the cup of our sweet, 

When we think of the conirades who c:in not return^ 

Slain by the insurgent foes they did meet, 

And the wild plains of Dixie their relics inurn! 

But praise to the Power who has favored our case, 
And wrought for the right in the vi(»lent fray, 

Though in purging our Nation, her Charters and Laws, 
He washed in our blood ht-r transgressions away! 

We feel the chastising and bow to the rod, 
And pray the atnning baptism may cea^e?;j 

And Mercy and Wisdom and Groodness of God, 
May crown us a union of Justice and Peace! 

Then hail to the Heroes we welcome to-day. 
Back to our tables, our hearts, and our homes! 

Clear ye the track f )r the jrallant array — 
Unfurl your banners and rattle your drums! 

Plvxo, Illiuois, Juue 17th, 1865. 



EPIC OP MADAM GRUNDY. 

[frank AKUOUR and JENNIE FLY.] 



Frank was a frolicking, 
Roistering: rolUickins:, 

Mischievous lad; 
Some years a minor, 

Not essentially bad, 
Nor a bit of a whiner. 

A juvenile nation 



EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDY. 



Inspired him to launch 
His young pero^ue staunch 

Out on life's ocean. 
And wanting; a wife, 

Or souiethino: akin to it, 
To sweeten his life, 

Eauer plunued into it 
"With heedless devotion. 



85 



In the bevy of girls, 
The prides of their mothers, 

So merry and m;»ny, 
He found never any 
To equal one Jennie 

The Queen of the group. — 
Her dentals so pe;irly, 
And ringlets so curly, 
Her diujples and blushes 
And fadings and flushes. 

Eclipsed all the others; 
Were others divine, 

She was diviner; 
Who essayed to shine. 

She would outshine her — 
O'er-niatch the whole troop — 

With her arts and her flashes. 

Her top-knots and lashes 

And dally in j; tresses; 

Her luscious caresses 

And deep clinging kisses 

So earnest of blisses 

Beyond, did him rapture. 

Completing his capture 
In the mystical loop. 



86 THE SUNFL WER. 



Now Jennie's mamma 

Was a watchful old bruin, 
Proud and ambitious, 
Shrewd and suspicious, 
Scheming and zealous, 
Artful and jealous, 
[So gossip does tell us. 

And prudence presumes,] 
Lest her daughter should ruin 

By luckless /ra^xjo^/.s. 
Her fair maiden fame. 
Or the family name, 
By singeing her plumes 
In the amorous flame. 

Here Frank was encroaching 
The family laws; 

Too eager to loo 
He damaged his cause — 
Was reckless and rash, 
Deserving the lash 
Or a merited snub. 

'Twas perilous poaching; 
Few striplings would dare 
To rifle the cub, 
And the petted one too. 
Of such arch mother bear. 

Had the shaver but waited 
And planned the affair, 
And as he grew older 
As wiser grown bolder, 
Peering over her shoulder 
He might have cajoled her. 
In honey words told her 
He came but to woo. 

He might have been mated 



EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDY. 87 

With little ado, 

And saved the old bruin 

The chafing and tear 
Of the passion she flew in. 

But Frank was a "brick," 

Foxy and plucky 
In whntever trick 

Would "turn him up" lucky. 

All the while a young demon 
Was artfully fixing 
A mystical potion 
"With sugar and cream" on, 
For Jennie and Frank; 
They tasted the notion 
x-Vnd relished the mixinsr. 
And freely they drank. 

Young Hymen came by 
All dressed for a weddinsr, 
A bright halo shedding 
On every one present 
Wherever he went, 
And paused just asunder. 
With a tear in his eye, 
In querying wonder 
And tremors unpleasant. 

Lest Jennie should swallow, 
Without his consent. 
Or a place to repent. 
The teeming elixir 
The demon did mix her, 

And what too would follow. 

The die too soon cast, — 



88 THE SUNFL WER. 



She drained off the gobletj 
The rubicon passed. 
She found it a jf)b let 

To end by and by, 
In flurry and worry 
And skurry and hurry, 
And trundlings and bundlings, 
And doctors and nurses 
And like needful fusses, 
Like all blunder ''busses," 

And a great hue and cry. 

At seeing her falter. 
Was Hyuien to blame 
To proffer his name 
To ward off the scandal 
And cover her shame, 
And her virtuous candle 

Ke-light at his Altar 

With immaculate flame? 

Sly Cupid stole Jennie, 
So reckons repute ; 
(A trick most uncanny,) 
Yet nobody knows it, 
Nor will she disclose it 
Except in the fruit 
She brought as a witness 
Attesting her fitness 
For runaway match 
Including the hatch 
Of the conjugal batch. 

I said Cupid stole her: 
No odds how he got her, 



EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDY. 89 



He now may control her, 

Since Hymen has sought her 

And in partnership brought herj 

Angelic consoler 

Of maculate daughter, — 

To save her at least 

From pending disaster,' 

He spread h(ir his plaster 

Put on by the Priest. 

So Frank got his Jennie, 

And also his baby; 
Such things oft have been, 

And often too, may be. 
But the flishinii' and lashintc 
And gnashing and dashing, — 
The eyes' fiery glare 
Of raving despair 
Of this mother bruin 
Foaming in wrath 
For the young rascal's ruin 
If he came in her path ! 

Ma'm Grundy "Knows Cupid 

Committed the rape, 

Just like him I" So oft 

He'd exposed her in shape 

Derisive, — sonje sober, 

Or shabby, or stupid, 

Or laughable scrape, 

When he took him a cue 

To ''raid" and unrobe her, 

And lift her aloft, 

For rustics to view — 

That she swore ''he should never- 



90 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



The pestering rake — ■ 
Be free in her realm, 
While she held the lever 
That governs the helm!" 
So her agencies clever 
With faithful endeavor, 
Pursue him and take him 
And halter and snake him 
To the marge of that lake, — 
The sulphurous puddle — 
Where old sinners huddle, 
And young babies cuddle, 
For Mercy's dear sake, 
Atoning for sin : 
Then Madam does take him 
And o'er the coals rake him. 
And seethe him and boil him 
And blister and broil him 
And fry hiui and roast him 
And scorch him and toast himi 
And crisp him and bake him 
And then pitch him in 
To that pious baptism. 
Here end the love-labors 
Of her and her neighbors, 

And devils' begin ; 
In that brimstone boiling 
They are vieing and toiling, 
Anointing his stains, 
And scalding his blains 
In their sulphurous chrysm. 
And basting it in! 

Let me say to all parties 
Whose the pleasure or smart is, 



Whose the blessings or ills; 
Just mingle and season, 
Cook and eat your own hash, 
[For this is but reason,] 
And foot your own bills 
Both of conscience and cash, 
And quiet your clash ! 

Canto II. 



Far away was her Frank 
With the brnve Volunteers; 
Though a stripling in years 
He in ' Staff" held his rank. 

Meanwhile Jennie came 
With her Corydon's name, 
Meekly repenting, 

Home to her mother, 

Saying she'd brought her 
Her primal grand-danghter. 
And prayed to be taken 
Like any forsaken, 

To sister atid brother 
And father and home, 
Thence no more to roam. 
The matron relenting, 
With a tear in her eye, 
And a motherly sigh, 
Embraced her and kissed her 
Solaced her and blessed her 
With welcoming grace, 
And gave her her place 
In the family fry. 



92 THE SUNFLOWER. 



Now here was condition 
For ample fruition; 
A fancy position 
To fill her ambition ; 
Nice gallant young men 
Both wedded and single, 
To flirt with and mingle 
And dangle and jingle 
As pleased her and when. 

Sheltered by night, 

Or screened by a curtain, 
"Where is the hurt in 
A perch on the lap 
Of a darling dear fellow. 
Or a comforting nap 
On his sociable pillow ? 

He 's such a delight!" — 
And aids her so much 
With his magical touch. 
In lifting the weeds 
That weigh the '-grass" widow 
Like fogs on the meadow, 
And soothing her needs. 

These all take a part in 
The sparkling bicker 
Of coquetting liquor 
She's steeping her heart in; 
But 'tis cnly the froth 
That floats on the broth 
Of her conjugal stew. 
Flung ofl" in flirtation 
To save palpitation; 
New-plighting her troth 



EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDY. 



93 



By this free ventilation, 
Her virtues grow purer, 
And constancy surer, 

Her love the more true 
To her bold suldier laddie 
Off' south in the fi^ht, 
Her sweet baby's daddy* — 
No character paddy — 
With honor all bright. 

How Frank will rejoice. 

Where'er he may roam 
When Jennie's sweet voice 
Or pencil or pen, 

Tells him her story! 

With barely the mention 
How these genfle-men 
With chastest attention 
To modish convention, 
Have cherished his waif: 

He will nive them great glory 
For preserving so safe 
His dear jewels at home. 

Canto III. 

A very Ma'm Modish, 
By every assent 
Of rowdy or gent, 
Or retinue toadish, 
Was Jennie — a belle: 
And the virtuous vent 
Of her modest intent 
Was all that was meant 
By her arrogant swell. 



94 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



With waist a la aausage 

A single strait passage; 

Tight-bellied, big-bustled, 

Then over all rustled 

And swelled uiore'n a barrel, 

[No coujuion apparel,] 

Xhe draping attire, 

Such as toplings admire. 

But alack for its trail — 

The unfortunate rag. 

With its dabble and swag, 

Its duckings and reels, 

As it dips from each swale 

The sullage and dag. 

And sozzles her heels ! 
Pestiferous slopper, 
A wasteful street-mopper, 
Wherever she walks; 
Or sopping from puddles 
Their nauseous muddles, 
(The style a la mode — 

Lord save us the fidgets!) 
Or draggling the walks 
Along the high road; 
Or to flap like a sail, 
Or toss like a tail, 
In the impudent gale. 
Exposing before all 
The gaudy Balmoral, 
And figured chemise. — 
[Nor does it displease — 
That's what they are there for. 
Nor more need she care for!] 
Or 'tis grabbled and hustled 
In crimples and crumples 



EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDY. 



95 



And musses and rumples, 

And lifttd on hi^h. 

By cunningly muscled 
Solicitous digits, 

Where the climate is dry. 

This changes the show, 

Displ lying to view, 

As the kind breezes blow, 

A supplement scene, 

Int<tructivc and new 

To the plebeian "green;" 

With m;^gical tact. 

Disclosing the fact 

Beyond cavil or doubt, 
That this effigy huu)an 
At last is found out 
To be verily wommi! — 
Has something between 
The bust and the base, 
That runs the machine, 
And not a mere bust 
On an umbrella perching. 
Swaying and lurching 
In high giddy space. 
Thus after long searching, 

Though erstwhile in vain, 
The gods now more gracious, 
Have made to appear. 
In manner sagacious 
And method so clear — 
Have settled for certain, 
The doubtful foundation, 
And fixed its location 
And proper relation. 
By lifting the curtain, — 



96 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



And nature is plain. 

'Twas no way mendacious, 
But utmost audacious, 
And 'gainst fearful odds, 
For the unpillant gods 
To stir the bad graces 
Of dames in their laces 
And matrons and crones, 

And get by the ears 
With young misses' poutings, 
And elder ones' floutings, 
And the lachrymose tones 
Of the scandalized ones 
Jn their flustering fears: 
N(»t Inr an exposing 
Of pillars of ttone, 
Or of iron or wood, 
But the awlul disclosing 
Of the hidden afore, 
Viz: Tlie tendon and bone 
And muscle and gore, 
Substantial and sound 
Set firm on the ground, 
By their Maker called ''good!'' 
So perfect in keeping 
And worthy of trust, 
So fitting their place 
In capering round 
In the play or the race, 
Or rousing the dust 
In dancing or leaping, 
Wit^h ravishing grace. 
That stately and trig 
Symmetrical leg — 



EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDY. 



97 



So taper and jiaip, 
Not a halt, nor a limp, 
Nor a bit of a scrimp 
In OS or in muscle, — 
All rivalry mocking 
Is agog for a tussle 
In the frolic or chase. 

Then the shadowy stocking 
Sfaid up with the grasp 
Of the dazzling clasp, 
Where the mischievous sun 
Mirrors his face. 
That beautiful leg! — 

What other could pair it — 
Or wishing, would dare it — 
Except 'tis the other? 
Both hatched from the egg 
Laid by Beauty's own mother. 

Jennie's a Beauty 
By common acclaim, 
Not heedful of duty, 
Nor troubled with aim: 
The overdight creature, 
Outyieing all nature, 
Decks every feature 
Where aught can be shown, 
With exquisite garnish 
Of pigment or varnish 
To heighten its tone. 
In mutual blisses. 
If damaging kisses 
Abrade it or tarnish; 
Or sweating should soil it, 
Or rain-spatter spoil it, 



98 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



With lively encore 
She flies to the toilet 

She boUiiht. at the store: 
Its colors and brushes 
Soon mend up the blushes 
And tintini^s and flushes 

As iiesh as before. 

Jennie is queen 
01' the ''Vanity Fairs:" 
This cutest of strdllers, 
D;iring all weathers; 
With the blazes she glares, 
Is swapping her dollars 
For tai-letons and crapes, 
Ruffles and collars, 
Flounces and gathers, — 
Such marvels of dresses 
In purple and green; 
With tattings and tapes, 
AVristlets and capes, 
Edgings and laces; — • 
Bundles and uiesses 
To fill out the graces 
Of all the lean places; 
And scollops and notches 
In all the odd shapes 
That awkwardness botches 
Or mimicry apts. 
A whimsey inspires them, 
Her folly requires them 
And pertness desires them: 
So flosses and cruels 
And trinkets and jewels 
And broaches and rings 



EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDY. 



99 



And tassels and buttons, 
With all the jj^ay put-ons 
Of braidings and strings 
Of named and untiauiable 
Ann fulls of thinus, 
AVith feathers and niusses 
That vanity fusses 
To finish the airs; 
All these the unshamable 
Comedy wears. 
The uudueon admires them, 
And mawkishly stares! 

Now comes the climax 
Of every thin Li bred 
Or chiseled or made 
Or fasliioned or i»rown-^ 
A lily full blown. 
Scented with lilacs 
Or nnnks or c<il"une — 
Her beam if ul he;id, 

Modeled by Powers! 
Perched on the top of it, 

Fresh from the shop, 
A beautiful trap, 
Not a coal hod nor flat, 
Nor a bonnet nor cap, — 
They call it a lint, — 
Don't know by the lop of it 
Whether made for a cat 
Or a bison or bat 
Or a peacock or rat, 
Or a this thing or that, — 
But it answers for bonnet, 
If t\\e to(j(jerii on it — 



100 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



Its drapings and vails, 

And sparkles and spangles, 
And baubles and morsels, 
And ribbons and torsels, 
And nettings and frettings, 
And tangles and dangles, 
And frizzings and fritters, 
And streamers and trails, 

Like the tails of some critters — 

Goes flippaty flop! 
Then on its summit 

A crimson plume towers. 
With a lop and a bow 
Over temple and brow, 
To balance and plumb it. 
Such beautiful red top 
On the exquisite head top, 

Unsettles the brain, 
And turns topsy turvy. 
Though ever so nervy, 
As maggot or scurvy. 

The whole Jockey train. 



Now search ye the mazes 
Of folly and show, 
On medium levels, 
In high life., or low, 
Where affluence revels, 

Or ambition crazes. 
Or indigence begs, 
And find if you can. 
Kin to mimkey or man. 
Anything fcr a span 
For this Lily on legs. 



EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDY. 



101 



"Hail to this Lily — 
Pink of perfection, 
Ordained by election, 
Moulded by Fashion, 
To lavish the cash on — 

The cream of the town!" 
So the youDii; loafers say, 

Flashy and silly, 

As they sra.nd in the way, 
Chawing and smoking, 
Lau^ihini:: and jokinir, 

As she down town is tripping — 
Apparaled so gaily. 
So airy and stately 
As is her wont lately, 
Some '-fourteen times" daily, 
And comes in their range. — 
Demented with passion, 
Their senses bemuddled 
A-swigiiing and sipping 
Their hiuer and wine, 
What about it is strange 
If they call her ''divine," 
And vote her a crown. 
In spite of the funk 
Of villainous varments, 
Exhaled trom her garments?— 
(A stink as disgusting, 
As nastincvSS uiU'-ting, 
Or polecat or skunk.) 
Jennie is pretty, 
Winsome atid witty, 
And sings like bird, — 
A musical star 



102 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



Of sonnet or ditty — 

So tell her uien Die; 
Her thuuibinir nnd driimniins: 
And thruimiiinii- and humming: 

The babhlin^ jiuitar, 

SonietiuK'S I've hcMrd. 

But calling her "witty" — 

O, merciful pity. 

Spare us th^t word ! 

They aie lashed with her gird- 

(0, for some soothinij: lotion!) 

Sick with Love's potion, 

I^ in«i wi'h the; smart 

From liis trcaclu-rous dart^ 

0, that vu'nerdse part! 

The worst hurt that can be 

In nature or art. 

Is t^le perforate heart. 
Has for tune no savor 

To plead in their favor, 

To wake an emntion. 

And give them a start, 

To bring- their devotion 

To some higher mart? 

Jennie is shy. 
Wary and prudish, 
Cool, even rndish, 

Artful and sly. — 
Watchful and careful 

In parlor or hall. 

At C" nee it or ball ; 

Seemingly prayerful 

When others are by^ 
This Covers appearance 



EPIC OF MADAM GRUNDY. 



103 



And saves reputation 
Froii) contamination 
And bars iiiterference 

Or the i:'»ssipin<2: fry. 
But meet her siih rosv/ 
In the masonic dark 
Only lit by her spark, 
And none to expose her; 

Or with damask to screen her, 
Or a panel between her 

And where the birds fly, 
And this wary demeanor, 
Say those who have seen her 
'"Is all in your eye." 
There meekly resiiiuin"" 
To sociable ways. 
And i'ondly inclining 
To rapturous twinini; 
In frolicsome plays; 
Her li'tle love graces 
And thrillin<r embraces 
And maiirietic kisses 
With all the sweet blisses, 
So come in their places, 
Affirmino: her yeses 
'J'o all you desire. 
That you catch the infection, 
And spite of reflection, 
Or fear of detection 
(A fi^ for protection, 
Or ,»ai:e circumspection 
In proper selection I) 
You dare all objection, 
And bless this collection 



104 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



Of matchless perfection 
Of every couiplection 
And rush in the fire. 

MORAL. 

As silly insects of a summer night 

Bedazzled, flutter round the taper fire, 
Witless of danger in the subtle light, 

Dart in and crisp a moment and expire: 
Just so the far more silly human kind, 

Mistaking Pleasure's wanton shining game 
For Happiness, rush heedless in and blind, 

To scorch and suffer in her treacherous flame. 

October, 1866. 



EVENING HYMN. 



Sleep! — balmy Sleep I — come close my eyes, 
Now evening shadows vail the skies; 
Tired nature longs the day to close, 
And find in thee her sweet repose. 
Thy bedtime bells unite their chime 
Of jaded labor's nodding time; 
Thy drowsy hands their cradles rock, 
From this glad moment, ''nine o'clock.'* 

Let me on thy dear hip recline. 

There all my weariness resign, — 

Drink deep the nectar streams that gush 

'Twixt now and morning's welcome blush; 



EVENING HTMN. 



105 



Let thy sweet lips my eyelids kiss, 
And seal them in undreaming bliss- 
Kind stop of nature's. conscious watch 
Ihat steps life's tallies, notch by notch. 

Let spirit kindred make my bed 
And smooth the pillow for my head 
My heart its griefs and anguish flies 
in their magnetic lullabies; 
They lull my jaded brain to peace, 
ihe achings of my bosom cease; 
My flesh, my senses, nerves and limbs, 
All listen to their soothing hymns. 

Thus may I meet life's closing eve 
VVhich ushers in the grand reprieve, 
>^hen that iuimortal day shall break 
And all refreshed, renewed I wake ' 
No more of toil, no more of pain, 
Of earthly passion, earthly p.in;' 
-No treachery nor fuKse display 
All round, that chafed my mortal way. 

But angel kin enrobed in light, 
To genial banquets sweet invite, 
And calm and sunshine, peace and joy 
My tranchised senses all employ: 
There heart to heart its matins sin^rs 
As moments fly on ether wings, ^ ' 
While truth and wisdom, life^and love 
Their ever during cycles move. ' 

• December 5th, 1866. 



106 



TUE SUNFLOWER. 



THE SPIRIT OF MAN NEVER GROWS OLD. 



As the elements play 
Beneath the broad sky, 

In produce and decay 
Of all that can die; 

As the al'iry of uiorning 
Is buried in nij^ht, 

And earth's cnnnitjo; labor 
In jnildew and bli.uht — 

So recrenieit drosses 

Be-niantle the ,<i(tld — 

The Spirit of Man 

That never <irows old. 

So the plant and the vine, 
And the berry and <rrain, 

And clover and fruit 
Of the iiardcn and plain, 

Of valley and mountain, 
Of forest and ulade. 

A season they flourish, 
Then rottioL^ are laid. — ■ 

While aires and cycles 

I'rimeval unrolled. 

Ere the Spirit <>f Man 

That never grows old. 

The ant and the bee, 
The spider, the leech, 

The mole in the burrow, 
The clam on the beach, 

The brute of the prairie. 



THE SPIRIT OF MAK 



107 



The bird of the sky, 
Sport a brief moment, 

Then sicken and die: 
Nature whiles busy 
Kxiltinti: her mold 
Towards the Spirit of Man 
That never grows old. 

Man only a ijerm 
Is flunii: f'n life s staire, 

Libors throuiih growth, 
And ripeness and age, 

Suffers and totters 
Adown the bleak hill, 

So closes the drama 
Of life's livinir chill. 

From out this finaJe 

Repu'sive and C(»ld, 

Sprinirs the Spirit of Man 

That nevers grows old. 

Fatigued are the hands 
In the warfare of life, 

And weary the heart 
In the militant strife; 

Faith, feeble with watching, 
Hope, faint with delay, 

In unison sighing 
Their ardors away. 

Some vestige immortal 

These ruins unfold 

Of the Spirit of Man 

That never grows old. 

The tongue becomes silent 
The vision grows dim, 



108 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



The ear loses hearing, 
The muscles their vim, 

The nerves forget feeling. 
The passions their sway, 

And the senses are stealing 
In Lethe away. 

Thus is the undying 

In piecemeal outroUed, 

Of the Spirit of Man 

That never grows old. 

There's a home for this Spirit 
In gardens of hliss — 

Not frosted by Winter 
Nor dying, as this — 

With fountains Eiysian 
In musical chime. 

And fruits all aglow 
Of the supernal clime; 

Celestial their relish, 
Of richness untold, 

The Spirit regaling 



Shall never erow old. 



March 28th, 1867. 



OUR CHRISTMAS DINNER. 



Not a squall wall was heard from a gobbler's throat, 

Nor a goose's hideous bumming, 
Nor martyred duck quacked funeral note 

To herald the Christmas coming. 



OUR CHRISTMAS DINNER. 109 



But we killed the "Old Rooster," the champion cock, 

That Hectored the yard so proudly — 
His magistral head we brought to the block, 

Which clamored at morn so loudly. 

On his robe was the sheen of brilliants aglow, 
As the morning sun gleamed o'er his back; 

And shrill as the steam-whistle rang out his crow, 
As he flapped on the peak of the stack. 

Tiinfrosted he wore a magnificent crest, 

On a caput he reconed the biggest; 
No lady becottoned could show such a breast, 

Though feathered and furred off the triggest. 

Snow-white were his pinions just tipped with black, 

And white was the surplice he wore; 
His tail so high arching and sweeping his track: 

Such a tail never worn he/ore^ 

Except by fine ladies to set off a grace, 

Or hide what the gaffs would throw chaff at, ' 

These stick the gay plume over temple or face, / 
For the roosters themselves to laugh at! 

He was stately, and rallied and ruled like a lord, 

No rival his manor dividing:, 
The cockerels scud at his frown or his nod; ' 

The sun even rose at his bidding! 

If saw he his profile perched on the barns. 

Govern the course of the wind, 
'Twas only conceit of the bulk of his harns. 

So common with two legged kind. 



1 10 THE SUNFL WER. 



Our hero disdained all political place 

Of congress or cabinet fa<ile, 
Deserving no share in log-rolling disgrace; 

Nor gave he false note to his bugle. 

But true as the magnet, he played well his part 
In the drama of nature's high missions, 

Till the raiders of Christmas t^truck deep to his heart, 
To pamper their Cretin conditions. 

A pity it seems such imperial head 

Should fall by a stroke a hi French^ 
But Christmas is coming and maughs must be*fed, 

Though necks meet the cleaver or wrench ! 

"VVhen Fashion indorses, nobody refrains 

Thi§ carnival Christian holiday; — 
The creatures — what matter their joys or their pains, 

If we can enjoy a fine jolly day ! 

The good wife lays hold of the truncated hulk' 

And begins a post mortem inspection 
Of plucking and scraping and singeing in bulk, 

And ending in butcher's dissection. 

The cuts in the pot are tastily laid 

And covered with dumplings all over, 

So a pie is compounded and dinner is made 
Fit to set to a queen or a lover. 

The pastry so huffy the kettle does fill; 

The medley all flavored so clever, 
Is more than a match for Delmonico's skill — 

Hail, '^Old-fashioned j90^/>^V' forever! 



OUR CHRISTMAS DINNER. 



Ill 



;J This served upon trenchers, or earthen at best 
n here Jove itself whistles and sin-s 
And the glow of affection warms every 'breast 
is better than viands of kin<>s. ' 

(Little Freddie and Carrie so gleeful all day 

Incessantly laughing and talkin- 
Heaping and spreading in showy ai-ray 

What -Santa" had put in each stockino- 

Now tush for a time or whisper their tone ^ 
As ''Pa" in the soup terreen fit>hes '' 

To bring from the deep, the old oracle bone, 
lliat time-honored umpire of wishes. 

"Please give me the wish bone ?" Fred audibly breathed 

^o~d,ve me the with bone?" in whisper 
Plead Carrie: but the charui was bequeathed 
Both to Pred and the dimple-cheeked li.per. 

Soon wishes were framed with a prayer to the fates 
How the dry bone at e'en should declare them*— 
fehe a hat— and a play-time to wear then.) 

i^y some hocus, next Uiorn both had little skates— 

Thus we fed on his carcase so juicy and sweet, 

bo luscious in muscle and fat, 
Till ended in surfeit the cannibal feast, 

And the fragment we flung to the cat. 

Such is Fame— a summit the Hero attains— 
A name emblazoned in story' 

And left him alone— with his glory." 

1867. 



112 



THE SUNFL WER. 



A THOUGHT. 



"Why should a living man complain?" 
Complaining is but weakness shown; 

No profit does repining gain: 

Why murmur at each transient pain, 
And mar each moment with a groan? 

What though the joys of earth are flown, 
And laughing Hope no more beguile? 
Better to court a cheerful tone. 
Cherish the blessings round thee strown, 

And woo the lips their pleasant smile. 



GUARDIANS. 



Spirit Kindred watching near me 

Night and day. 
With, their kindly whispers cheer me 

On my way : 
'Tis the Spirit sweet communion, — 

Blessed boon! 
Earnest of the dear reunion 

Coming soon; 
Beunion in those happier spheres 
Beyond the storms of changing years. 

Whispers as of Eden given, 
Greet mine ear. 



GUARDIANS. 113 



As if nearer bringing Heaven, 

Still more near; — 
Calling upward, sweetly calling, 

To the sky, 
Wait my weary soul to welcome 

By and by; — 
(0, how my longing soul will spring 
To rise and join them on the wing!) 

Tell, my prison chains are breaking, 

One by one, 
And my Bastile walls their quaking 

Have begun ; 
Tell me that each pang of sorrow 

Parts one string 
Staying from the brighter morrow 

Opening, 
When friend with friend and heart to heart 
Unite again no more to part. 

Thus serene, awake or sleeping 

Am I blest, 
Spirit kin their vigils keeping. 

And I rest, 
Patient in the petty trials 

Which assail, 
Bravely meeting self-denials, 

To prevail 
And rise these jarring scenes above 
To that blest paradise of love. 

Thus I wait a little longer 

Here below; 
Faith and hope are growing stronger, 

^ As I go; 



114 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



Higher Heaven still keeps rising, 

As I win 
Purer joys, and love and goodness 

Conquer sin. 
'Tis endless progress themes my lays 
And tunes my heart in grateful praise. 

So each triumph in the struggle 

Wears its palm; 
Wounds all cured by this spirit 

Gilead balm; 
Till adieu to pain and sadness, 

Toil and care — 
All exchanged for rest and gladness, 

Over there, 
Upon that blooming thither shore. 
Where death and winter blight no more. 



May 3rd, 1868, 



COUPLET. 



Blind man courts pleasure in her wanton shapes, 
The rankling thorn remains — the rose escapes. 



MY MO UNTA IN HOME. 115 



MY MOUNTAIN HOME. 



How dear to me my mountain home — 
Thy woodland braes and rippiing rills! 
'Twas there my infant feet did roam 
Along thy vales and o'er thy hills; 
Thy fountains clear and sunny glades: 
Thy teeming fields and orchards gay, 
And grape-embowered arbcr shades 
Where cireless childhood loved to stray. 

Chorus: 

Come back to me, my mountain home! 
Dear scenes where meuiory loves to run; 
Earth, air and sky seemed all abloom 
As life and I went whistling on. 

I love thy fields and meadows green 
That shimmered in the warming ray; 
Thy pools and streams that danced between, 
When Summer donned her plumage gay. 
Thy lilies wore so white a bloom, 
Thy roses such refulgent hue ; 
Thy lilacs breathing such perfume 
The gales were fragrant with its dew. 

How bright thy Winter stars did glow, 

Out-peering through the crispy sky. 

And laughed, as through the shivering snow 

Our coasting sleds went whirling by. 

Thy wakeful moon benignly shone, 

As if to bless our evening roof — 



116 THE SUNFLOWER. 



Our altar dear, and loved hearth stone — 
Kind Heaven's gift, our rich behoof. 

My youthful heart was guileless then, 
All things around me showed so fair, 
Unschooled in wiles and wrongs of men, 
My hours winged lightly, free of care. 
The world seemed an unceasing song, 
Enchanting to my childhood mind; 
All things appeared a chiniing throng. 
And birds and T the chorus joined. 

May 7th, 1868. 



A RIDDLE. 



Here and there we go, 

Yet do not leave our place; 
In Winter's drifting snow. 
Or Summer's fervent chase, 
We toil away, or drove or led, 
Or sentry keep around our bed. 

We jockey at the fair; 

We play upon the stage; 
We rive the dusty air 
Amid the race's rage.' 
So hie we through the stormy years, 
Disdainful both of smiles and tears. 

In summersaults we plunge. 
Yet ever stand aright; 



CHEWING GUM. 



117 



Now making luckless lunge, 
Now flying like a kite; 
Thus "bobbing round/^ or drunk or fired, 
Or double file, bemoiled and tired 

Fight we the war of life. 
Its battles and alarms; 
Treading through each strife. 
Bearing still our arms. 
Now what are we — whence we came — 
Our riddle tell, and what our name? 



CHEWING aUM. 

[Scene^ The Church; Actress^ Miss Araminta.] 



Notice you that queenly maiden — 

Stately come 
Down the aisle with Jasper Hayden, 

Chewing gum? 
She's the Belle, a model lady; 
Half the beaux to die are ready 
For that jaw that wags so steady, 

Chewing gum! 

In the pew, together cosy 

With her chum, 

Turgid cheek all fresh and rosy, 
Chewing gum. 

How her pretty chin does teeter! 



118 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



Never smiled an angel sweeter: 
Sure an angel could not beat her 
Chewing gum ! 

Her two lips with cherry vieing, 

Or a plum. 
Half a mind to hide from spying 

Chewing gum, 
Seem just on the eve of parting 
For some eloquence out-darting, 
But alack— they're only starting 

Chewing gum I 

Out her dewy mouth she takes it: 
'•Precious crum I" 

In a fancy bolus makes it 

With her thumb, — 

See her balance it on finger, 

And in admiration linger: 

"Luscious lozenge 'tis, by gingo— 
Chewing gum 1" 

On the street or common walking, 

Or the slum ; 
At the ball or levee talking. 

Chewing gum 
Fits the staid and the erratic, 
Fits the basement, shed and attic, 
And the courts aristocratic, — 

Dregs and scum. 

On all out-occasions chewing, 

Or at home. 
Ceaseless, heedless, paltry chewing, 

Chewing''gum I 



MONEY. 119 



Mimic younglings ready nab it, 
Chewing like young goat or rabbit, 
Soon grow finished in the habit. 
Chewing gum. 



MORAL 



As tiny insect in the light which shines 

And poisons flower and fruit with subtle sting; 

"As little foxes spoil the tender vines," 
So little habits death and ruin bring. 



January 10th, 1869. 



MONEY. 



Money is king! — 

Ha! ha! ha! 
The world is its ring. 
In worshiping tone. 
All ttates and all nations. 
All grades and all stations, 
Bow down to its throne; 
Their lords and their commons, 
Their senates and halls, 
When money is waiting, 
Cut short their debating 
To list to its summons 
And answer its calls. 

Money is gracious ! — 
Haw ! haw ! haw ! 



Gives note and hooraw 

To its lucky possessor, 

Be he priest or professor, 

Or rowdy or clown ; 

Or the idling scorners 

That hans on the corners 

Or loaf about town. 

The grave parson vows to it 

With desire rapacious, 

In cant quite religious 

And fervor prodigious, 

[As custom does show;] 

And, as to Pope, bows to it, — 

When he cravens before him, 

To praise and adore him 

And "kiss his bi^ toe." 



'o 



Money's a charm — 

Ho! ho! ho! 
More fain than a farm 
To aid the curmudgeons 
And boors and gudgeons 

To strut up and crow! — 
Just the thing for the flunkies 

To hold in their paw; 
Gives toddies to monkies. 
And lagers to donkeys 

To wash down their straw. 
The golden heart bumps 
Inside of the breast 
Of both sharpers and gumps. 
Forbidding their rest 
In the battle and chase 
After profit and place 
In the farcical test: 




All of them crave it, 
Few only can save it, 
Discount and shave it 
With generous profit 
Of cent per cent off it, 
As commerce defines; 
[Here conscience declines 
Her saucy behest,] 
And shrewdness indorses; 
It buys them fast horses, 
Frolicksome, frisky, 
Women and wine, 
Tobacco and whisky. 
And raises the shine 
On their leather so fine. 



How I love money! — 

He! he! he!— 
'Tis better than honey 

You ready can see; 
It deals me the trumps. 
And with them the game 

Which wins me the pile 
Of nugo^ets and lumps. 
And with them the fame 
Of a "lucky dog's" name: 
This hideth all shame 
Of whatever blame, 
'Neath the roseate flame 
Of mammon's sweet smile. 

Early or late. 

Wherever I range. 
Money 's my passport, 
I've many a glass for 't, 



123 



THE SUNFLOWER. 



And many a lass for 't, 
Jane, Sally and Kato; 
'Mong toadies and shoddies 
And nabobs and noddies — 
In popular rabble. — 
Or civilized bodies 
Of bulls and of bears 
That hiuLzle and h:iffle 
Tn picayune raffle. — 
Or stock-jobber <rabble 
Over competing shares, 

Where millions exchange. 
Now you see why T covet 
And prai.se it aud love it, 
There 's nothing above it, 
Nor near it, for fame 
To notice and name. 

Money is nn^ic, 
And logic, and law, — 
Comico — tragic, — 
Rtiles counselors, judges. 
Philosophers, kings; 
Tt wheedles and nudges 
And dazzles and brings 
Devoted all classes, 
Lodges and masses. 
Of schemers and rings, 

To satiate its maw. 



May 29th, 1869. 



RICH. 



123 



RICH. 



They say he is "Rich !" — 

A wonderful word, 

So often repeated 

Like sonor of a bird. 
But of its import — what nieaneth its sound, 
As it rings through the welkin and echoes around? 
Ah! yes — what are ri'rhrs? and what are they for? 
Are they comfort and plenty, or turmoil and war? 

These are his riches: 

Heaps labored and vast 

From dunLrhills and ditches 

Of a wasted life past; 
He's scraped them together of muck and of mold, 
A tomb for his carcase now wasted and old; 
Rut '-rich" thoy now call him, with millions and muff, 
This sates his ambition — is glory enough! 

He swore to be rich 

When he started in life: 

So starving his children 

And crushing his wife; 
Corrupting his morals, debasing his mind 
O'erreaching, deceiving and robbing his kind 
By shaving and shoddy, extortion and fraud 
He reckons his millions, and wretches applaud. 

Yes: rich without morals, 
Or manhood, or mind. 



124 TEE SUNFLOWER. 



Or manners, or taste, 

Or a spirit refined; 
Rich without wisdom, modesty, love, 
Gentleness, purity, born from above; 
Rich in the trover of illgotten pelf, 
But a pauper per se when he reckons himself. 

May 80th, 1869. 



THE DYING BODY'S ADIEU* 

TO ITS DEPARTING SPIRIT. 



Spirit! our warfare is o'er, 
Its conflicts are ended at last; 

Turmoils and marches fatigue us no more, 
Now the last tottering milestone is pass'd. 

Thou art oif to the beautiful shore, 

(Poor me to the cofiin they cast,) 

Where thy longings their freedom will see, 

To rest or regale as they please, 

In culling the fruit of each life-giving tree, 
Or snifiing the balm of the breeze; 

Freedom from prison and me, 

As nature maternal decrees. 

Spirit! thy troubles are sped, — 
The pangs that thy senses have stung, 

The tears as the rain, that thy anguish has shed. 
And the throes that thy bosom have wrung, 
All garnered with me with the dead, 
With the mantle of Lethe o'er-flung. 



TEE D 7JNG BODY'S ADIEU. 125 



No anger will more knit thy brow, 

Commotion nor redden thy cheek, 

No more cheat thine ear will the treacherous vow, 

When the heart a friend-treasure would seek; 

Affections are purified now. 

And thy tongue the glad numbers will speak. 

Spirit! 'Twas animate clay — 
Moiling its way through earth's gloom, 

Urged by thy ardors impatient of stay — 
'Tis worn out a- working its doom: 

It bids thee now farewell for aye. 

And lies down to rest in its tomb. 
Dear Spirit — our warfare is o'er, 

Its conflicts are ended at last; 

Perils and marches fatigue us no more, 
For the last tottering milestone is passed. 
Thou art flown to that bright Summer shore, 

And left me as reptiles' repast. 

January 29th, 1871. 

NoTK.— Thie poem is the last conceit of the writer's inepirations 
in a rhyming way, more than six years agone, therefore he deems it a 
most appropriate closing. 



126 TEE SUNFL WER. 



X 1' i^ ^ . 



Note 1. — In Waspuc Parish, town of Glastcubiiry, Hartford Coun- 
ty, Connecticut, some ten miles south-east of Ilartfoi'd City ; on north 
side of highway, some half mile west of the Old Red Church on Old 
Street running north and south, (said church now is moved northward 
into another neighborhood), and on a gentle slope eastward towards 
"Great Brook," and south of "Roaring Brook." In the center of the 
house stood an enormous irregular pyramid of rough stones, alias a 
chimney, nondescript in form, with a system of lire-places suited to 
the circumjacent rooms. In the kitchen was a culinary fixture, 
called "oven," whence came forth at breakfast the aromatic brown 
breads kept steaming hot over night; the luscious baked apples to 
zest the bread-and-milk supper; as also the more artistic pastries — 
mince and other pies, together with the ever-expected "turnover" for 
each juvenile — to crowu Thanksgiving and the Holidays, and dot an 
occasional prudent piece along the circle of the year. 

Under the oven was the "stockhold," to kennel the flat-irons and 
the inanimate "goose." 

In the base of the chimney in the cellar, was the "ash-hold," a 
cranny sacred to the domestic "soap-boiler:" it received through an 
opening in the fire-place back (a most convenient device) and down a 
passage or descending flue, the daily accumulation of ashes. These 
all, with the motley addend of nooks, recesses, and ledges for shelves, 
cupboards and cases, and so on, made the great "centerstance" of a 
yankee rural mansion, necessary and fashionable in the P. M. of the 
eighteenth century, and the morning of the nineteenth. Yet the 
quiet felicities of Home delighted to hover and nestle around and in 
these rustic domiciles. 

Note 2. — The last of this "infernal machine," was among my 
earliest remembrances : 'twas put up to furnish the embargoed people 
with cider-brandy during the war of 1812-15 



Note 3.-By we.t side of garden wall, six or eight rods west of the 
house, bam in rear and the smithy in front by the highway 
trivan''cefo7'''"'\7''''-'^ '''''"' acquainted with These rustie con- 
Thev «' ''' l""" '^"^'''^ " ^^^^"Pti«^ of one seems proper. 

They are now mostly superceded bv more artistic devices 

The "trough- is annular, of some twelve to fifteen feet diameter 

theoV^ ifr'"''"^ "' ^°°^^^^"" ^^^^•'--' inuer wall vertical, and 
the outer wall battered or beveled outward to conform to the sha^e of 
the wheel A pivot po.t is set in center of the trough circle 

1 he wheel is some six feet diameter, made solid of timbers some 
eigh inches on tread, inner face flat, outer face convex or con ciu' nd 
treads in the trough, and is held in position by the arm or si ' (Se 

the wh'o l' "V "■' ". '""^' ^^ ^'^' "'''^"^ I'"^*' ' »-^ --tends thil gh 
the wheel and protrudes far enough beyond it, "to hitch 'Old DoW 
to,- who traveled on his own circuit. 

Old cider-makers, most of whom were also cider-topers and hence 
conno.s..eurs m their line, always endorsed the "whee^ mill,' f^S 
mashes the seeds as no other mill does.- They used to sav that there 
^was almost as much cider virtue in the seeds as in all thJ nj; J^" 

NoTK 4.-This tiny tube, this frail, yet invaluable equipment of 
every boy at a cider mill, aided by vacuum producing powe conf 
plctes an nnpromptu syphon, and is, even without "yom lieve's^r"- 
poked into every pool and rill and current dripping from the'pr/ss 
and thrust into the bung and vent of every repleni:hed cask on t fe 
premises, and with as tireless ardor as ever bee or humb i.l , t ed 
from flower to flower garnering their delectable sweets 

Note .5.-8tairs led from kitchen. The second step was a broad 
one door upon it opening into ".tair way.- stair, tirned at "ht 
angle to the nght to c-scap,- the ro..f .only a "story and a half.- The 
first step was .„ the kitchen, and on this I sat as Prince exe ici.iit 
he Yankee sp.r.t and practice: while on broad step, behind tl e door! 
was stored my whittling stock. I availed mvself of " 'AflVV knife to 
make pegs- (my oldest brother's name is Alpheus) and'mv ,b 

Ptill bears the mark of this juvenile industrv 

Note 6.-In those days it was both cusiomarv and respectable for 
women-mothers and dau.hters-to spin wooland flax'anT ea^e 
theni, too. But then, that was before shoddy was fashionable 

^"^OTE 7.-One incident connected therewith is remembered: One 

io k^r Tn' "''^"^•' ;-- " ^"--^t- ^^y -tor, Ursula, nZ 
m.lk lu 1 . In the cow yard lay a large boulder, one corner of which 



138 THE SUNFLOWER. 



was jiist low enough for a convenient milking stool. Ursula, pail in 
hand, would seat herself upon this rock, and Milly would generally 
come unbidden, but if not, a word would bring her to. But she some- 
times failed to strike the exact position the first time— a trifle too far 
ahead, or too near or too distant — in which case Ursula had but to 
make her a gentle slap, and say: "Go oflf Milly, and come round 
better!" True to the hint, she would make her little circuit and gen- 
erally come right ; though IVe sometimes seen her make her circuit 
under orders two or three times before the exact position was at- 
tained; and she always came round with the same meek and patient 
air. 

Ah, Milly — such meekness, patience and fidelity are seldom met 
with in thy sex now-a-days ! 

Note 8. — Mj^ unforgiving legs have even now, not quite forgotten 
the smart of the "birch" administered to them because they deviated 
from the precise latitude and longitude, horizontal and perpendicular, 
prescribed; because they were unable through the tardy hours, to 
endure with statue quiet, the merciless torture of those four, five and 
six-legged stools — stools ten to fifteen feet long, made of oak or chest- 
nut slabs, with sticks stuck in auger-holes for legs, and all in their 
native finish of surface, color and grain. These juvenile racks — by 
sublime eftrontery called seats — were considered by the country school 
managers as suitable outfits, but the urchins who sat on them became 
afiiicted with "unsuitable in-fits." 

Note 9. — Stone fences: hardly any others on the farm. Fields 
small, yet plenty of stock for more fences "lying around loose" on the 
land where these were gathered. 

Note 10. — Thus contradistinguished from my father's, or the new 
one. 

Note 11. — This old cellar, the last relic of my gi-andsire's domicile, 
was only a few rods west of my father's, a little further back nearer 
the "spring:" as pioneers in all countries plant themselves as by 
instinct, as convenient as possible to a supply of that indispensable 
element, water. And though he had to battle with unfriendly climate, 
rugged soil and primeval forest, they had plenty of pure water. He 
died in 1810. 

Note 12. —The Larch, or "Hackmatack," his only ornamental 
tree, stood nearly in front of house. 

Note 1:3.— About the 2(5th of October, 1817, with an outfit of a yoke 
of oxen and a cart (supplemented with the "old gray mare" find a one 
horse wagon) containing the "housen stuif" of a caravan of the five 



NOTES. 129 



pilgrims, and after two weeks of toilsome journeying we arrived at a 
little log hut — which cattle had appropriated for -a stable — in the 
woods, (Hollisterville grew there afterwards), in Salem township, 
Wayne county, Pennsylvania, on the ninth day of the November fol- 
lowing. That one hundred and eighty miles journey, at that time and 
the circumstances and conditions appertaining, was a greater under- 
taking than is an "around the workV at the present daj-. 

Note 14.— We left Penn.syivania, (Hollisterville), May 10th, 1838, 
"overland'" with horse teams, and arrived here in Little Rock township, 
Kendall (then Kane) county, Illinois, the 29th of the foilowing"^une. 

Piano was planted here m 1852. 

NOTE ON ELEGY ON DEATH OF CHARLES 
MADISON CARVER. 

Charlie with others, some seventy-ftve in all, in and about Col- 
chester, Connecticut, paid in $300 each, bought the barque Selma, 
Orrin Selew, Master, set sail for California, April 11th, 1849, and 
arrived in San Francisco the following October 5th. (The following 
is from his friend Plumas.) He was sick from dysentery on shipboard, 
and did not leave the vessel till the 13th of February, 1850, when feel- 
ing a little better he went up to Plumas City, worked a little, but his 
old malady returned on him. But at the earnest solicitation of a 
claim owner, he went, though yet feeble, some seventy-five miles up 
the Middle Yuba, to hold by possession the claim the said owner had 
purchased. He had no tent, and was not able to build one — even of 
brush. His "wayside acquaintance,"' whom he had engaged to 
help him in his claim work, was away "prospecting:" and thus 
Charlie was left alone to die of enteric inflammation, on the bank of 
the Yuba. — See page 48. 



''fr^W' — ^^^ END. — ^a.-. 






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